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Message
From: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@z...>
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 10:48:39 -0700
Subject: Re: [oc] Erasing INTERNET (Maxim Vlasov)
Rudolf Usselmann wrote:
>
> Marko,
>
> thanks a lot for explaining the problem so nicely. Indeed,
> unfortunately the industries view of OpenCores is not very
> positive as it is, and it is definitely not appreciated the
> same way as Free Software is. Everybody loves free software
> and uses free software, and is happy to pay RedHat for support.
> But when it comes to hardware, the reactions are usually
> different.
>
> Several people here (including me) have been fighting very
> hard to create a more professional image for OpenCores and
> the IPs we offer. We have invested countless of hour of
> personal and professional time and have worked very hard
> to make a point in the industry. It's not about profits
> which we need to survive, it's about a better innovation
> driven evolution of hardware for reasonable price. I don't
> enjoy to pay $800 to Intel for one freaking CPU. The goal
> was to create an IP library that could be used to make
> reasonably priced chip, resulting in consumer items for
> all at a reasonable price.
>
> And it takes only one little bomb, like this Maxim guy, to
> destroy everything we have worked for.
>
> Anything less than loudly denouncing his misbehavior and
> banning all of his work from this website would be like
> putting salt in to a bleeding wound. It must be made very
> clear that such behavior is neither supported nor tolerated.
>
Speaking as a long-time Linux hacker...
Well, initially the reaction toward open source software wasn't
particularly favourable either. It look off because of individuals, and
then crept into corporate environments "from the bottom." That's hard
to do for what is notably hardware, although modern FPGAs make these
available to individuals with no real life (like yours truly...
http://www.zytor.com/~hpa/fpga/ for proof :)
If you look around, there are tons of crappy, abandoned or otherwise
useless OSS -- it's just largely ignored, and don't develop a user
community.
I think OpenCores should look at SourceForge and Freshmeat for how a lot
of these things can be handled. Both sites have been extremely
successful because, in part, they encourage user community involvement
rather than passivity. Once that happens it gets pretty clear what's
good and what's crap. Also remember that one man's trash is another
man's treasure. There are always cores which are perfectly adequate for
one particular application which may not be what someone else expects.
-hpa
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