Intel: an ‘open source fraud’
p2pnet.net News:- Intel is an Open Source fraud, say researchers.
OpenBSD’s has been battling with Intel for some time causing leading project creator Theo de Raadt to say, "before we ask a vendor, we have already lost (ie, the device does not work)," says a post on KernelTrap. "When a vendor says no, we have lost nothing further – there is no way we can lose further than having the device not work. We can only win, and then the device works. So there is no point in giving up until we win back the rights to write software for the hardware that we have purchased.
"As before, the goal is to get Intel to provide a freely distributable binary firmware.
Intel should follow the example of other companies in the market, the story has de Raadt declaring.
"Intel must do this firmware grant in the same way that Adaptec, Atmel, Broadcom, Cirrus Logic, Cyclades, QLogic, Ralink, and LSI and lots of other companies have granted distribution firmware to be used by others."
The open source community should contact Intel, he says, adding, "let’s win back the rights to run the hardware we purchased."
Damien Bergamini started a thread on the OpenBSD -misc mailing list in which he summarized Intel’s policy toward open-source software being to "make us look like we’re open-source friendly by opening a project on sourceforge," and, "give the open-source community the bare minimum so that they can serve as our beta-testers," says .
He released a reverse engineered blob-free driver for an Intel wireless chipset earlier this year, "but work is slow as Intel does not freely provide documentation to the chipset," says KernelTrap.
Also See:
KernelTrap – OpenBSD: Intel Accused Of Being "An Open Source Fraud", September 30, 2006
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October 3rd, 2006 at 4:58 pm
It’s in Intel’s best interest to write a driver for their products on operating systems that people use. And OpenBSD is the most secure of what’s out there.
October 3rd, 2006 at 5:34 pm
Its not about drivers its about binary firmware blobs that should be burned onto the ROM but they don;t so they can provide easy updates.