From: Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2020 12:39:17 +0000 (+0000) Subject: more on 022 update X-Git-Url: https://git.libre-soc.org/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=9af9b2e2eac397e58810d2690bd79fe90acd529d;p=crowdsupply.git more on 022 update --- diff --git a/updates/022_2020feb14_openpower_eula_released.mdwn b/updates/022_2020feb14_openpower_eula_released.mdwn index 40f22ad..7d100a2 100644 --- a/updates/022_2020feb14_openpower_eula_released.mdwn +++ b/updates/022_2020feb14_openpower_eula_released.mdwn @@ -1,6 +1,7 @@ # Intro Several things in this update: the OpenPower Foundation released their EULA; +RISC-V Foundation opens access to *some* mailing lists; we had a last-minute decision to go to FOSDEM to meet NLNet; we have new team members helping out and making really good progress. @@ -38,4 +39,116 @@ First preliminary reading however, as Hugh kindly said privately to me, there's really nothing controversial, here, and it actually looks really good and extremely well-designed. +# RISC-V Mailing Lists +Since the last update, some of the RISC-V Mailing lists have become "open". +There was no announcement. You can't get access to the prior archives. +Critically important lists - such as the UNIX Platform Working Group - +remain closed and secretive. Four years of requests by dozens of people +to not be "Fake Open Source". It's like pulling teeth without an anaesthetic. +Still, they're finally making an effort. + +They still have not responded (as is legally required under their Trademark +obligations) to any of the twenty to thirty reasonable in-good-faith +requests for inclusion of Libre Businesses with "full transparency" +as part of their business objectives. + +Failing to allow public participation in the UNIX WG is particularly +damaging to RISC-V's reputation. Telling u-boot and linux kernel developers +"oh if you want to contribute to RISC-V kernel or u-boot you have to sign +a secret agreement and sign up to a secretive mailing list", how well do you +think that's going to go down? + +I really don't want to be the only person informing people about how +RISC-V is still "Fake Open Source" and how it's effectively cartelled +(and is running afoul of anti-trust laws). If someone else can take over +responsibility for this, I'd much prefer to keep the LibreSOC a positive, +welcoming and progressive community. + +# FOSDEM 2020 + +As mentioned +[on the list](http://lists.libre-riscv.org/pipermail/libre-riscv-dev/2020-January/003660.html) +we received a message from Michiel that they were financially backing over +*twenty five* projects that were attending and giving talks at FOSDEM! +They also let everyone know that the nice people from Brussels were going +to be attending. At which point, I went, "ah." and scrambled like mad to +make sure I was there, presenting a smiling face to ensure that the nice +EU Commission people knew that their money was definitely being put to good +use. + +This actually turns out to be a serious problem for the EU. My friend Phil +decided a few years ago to go along to one of these "Independent Grant Review" +processes. He basically said that not only was the quality of the applications +absolutely atrocious, but worse than that the people volunteering to do the +review - ordinary people like solicitors, office managers, farmers - had +precisely zero technical knowledge and couldn't tell the difference between +a good application, a bad application or a deceptive application. + +Now expand that up to applications for EUR 1 million. 10 million. + +Consequently, for NLNet to be actually making sure that the money they've +been given responsibility for actually reaches actual programmers who +actually release actual free software which actually improves actual +real-world infrastructure for the benefit of EU Citizens (and incidentally +the rest of the world) is a bit of an eye-opener. + +Also it was fantastic to meet Staf, and talk to him about the upcoming +test chip that he'll be doing. He will be including an SR-Latch cell for +us, because it saves such a vast number of gates. There were several other +people we met, including one who can help us to develop a +[BSP](http://bugs.libre-riscv.org/show_bug.cgi?id=164) (Board Support Package). + +# New members + +We have now four new people who are contributing: Cole, Veera, Yehowshua +and Michael. Veera is a sysadmin and I would be delighted to get some +help managing the server. In particular I want to install public-inbox +but it requires exim4 and mailman to be converted to Maildir. + +Cole just loves the idea of what we're doing and wants to learn, so what +I've asked him to do is to simply follow instructions and tutorials, and +give us feedback on whether they're clear. If not, that's a problem that +needs to be fixed, and his *lack* of experience is absolutely perfect for +testing that. + +Yehowshua - a friend of Michael - got in touch around the time of the +last update, and he's been helping find funding. As he is at Georgia Tech, +he will be applying for the LAUNCH-X Programme, funded initially by my +old boss, Chris Klaus. Chris has been really helpful here, he's really +delighted to be able to help other Georgia Tech Alumni. Yehowshua has +also been encouraging and helping with a redesign of the website CSS, +and been instrumental in a major rewrite of the wording. + +Michael has just jumped straight in to the processor design. Yehowshua +tells me he first met Michael as he was sitting in a cafe with an FPGA +board attached to his laptop. He's another of these extremely rare +self-motivated, self-taught, "auto-learner" types who are worth their +weight in gold. + +One particularly fascinating common theme between all of us turns out +to be music, maths, and high-coordination sports. Yehowshua loves +skate-boarding, and I love rollerblading, for example. + +One very interesting thing came out of the contact with Georgia Tech's +CREATE-X Programme: we are looking to create a Public Benefit Corporation. +More on this later, however it became clear to us that we need good +"communicators". Not so much more "programmers", although we do still +urgently need a c++ compiler type person for the +[MESA 3D Driver](https://libre-riscv.org/nlnet_2019_amdvlk_port/). +We need entrepreneurs - especially undergraduates from Georgia Tech - willing +to take on the responsibility for going out and finding, meeting and talking to +clients and customers, coming up with ideas, and giving us, as "Engineers", +the feedback we need to target the processor at an actual market. + +# Other stuff + +The extra NLNet budgets are helping, as is the continued sponsorship from +Purism. I am beginning to get slightly overloaded with the managerial and +bureaucratic tasks, I still have to coordinate the NLNet tasks for each +of the Memorandums of Understanding, at which point the tasks listed on +them, people can then get paid for completing them. I can't quite get +over the fact that NLNet was happy to allocate such a huge amount of +money to this project, it's amazing, humbling, and a huge responsibility. + +Also, we got word that the