[gentoo-user] Re: Opinions on DVR/PVR backend?

[Grant Edwards]

On 2018-01-26, Taiidan@×××.com <Taiidan@×××.com> wrote:

> So you know the RPI is not open source as the RPI foundation doesn't
> provide firmware sources.

Yes, I'm aware of that.

[...]

> I would consider purchasing another device, of which legitimately
> open source low power ARM devices are a dime a dozen (vs the high
> performance realm where POWER's TALOS 2 or rare developer boards are
> the only choice)

The problem with purchasing less common but more "open" boards is that
it tends to be a lot more work to get things running on them.

I don't get particularly upset if a cheap, throw-away board like the
RP3 uses closed-source firmware -- all the underlying chips are
closed-source designs also.[*] As long as that firmware is part of a
driver that provides a standardized, open, documented API, I'm happy.

If the board/firmware/driver becomes unavailable, the open-source
applications and libraries can always be moved to a different
board/firmware/driver combination that implements that same
standardized API.

[*] Sure, you can run low-performance, high-cost "open-source HW"
    designs by combining open-source VHDL cores and compiling a SOC
    design into an FPGA, but the FPGAs and all the tools used to
    compile the VHDL are closed source.

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! My NOSE is NUMB!
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