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All,
After reviewing some of the comments on the ASUS KGPE-D16 being essentially too large of a system and too expensive for many people, and the fact that modern, blob-free systems are not really available in the mid-range arena, Raptor Engineering would like to offer to create a native initalization blob-free port for the ASUS KCMA-D8, which is essentially the KGPE-D16's ATX-compatible "little brother".
We would be asking $15,000 for the port, including upstreaming to the master coreboot tree. We already have extensive experience with these Family 10h/15h boards, and would be able to create a port of similar quality to the existing KGPE-D16 source in terms of both code quality and overall functionality.
If this is something you might be interested in please let me know. We are able to accept multiple payments from various sources for the same project (within limits), so if this is something your local Linux groups or similar might be interested in we should be able to keep the cost on any one individual or organization to a reasonable level.
Thank you for your consideration,
- -- Timothy Pearson Raptor Engineering +1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line) +1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard) http://www.raptorengineeringinc.com
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On 09/11/15 21:44, Timothy Pearson wrote:
All,
After reviewing some of the comments on the ASUS KGPE-D16 being essentially too large of a system and too expensive for many people, and the fact that modern, blob-free systems are not really available in the mid-range arena, Raptor Engineering would like to offer to create a native initalization blob-free port for the ASUS KCMA-D8, which is essentially the KGPE-D16's ATX-compatible "little brother".
We would be asking $15,000 for the port, including upstreaming to the master coreboot tree. We already have extensive experience with these Family 10h/15h boards, and would be able to create a port of similar quality to the existing KGPE-D16 source in terms of both code quality and overall functionality.
If this is something you might be interested in please let me know. We are able to accept multiple payments from various sources for the same project (within limits), so if this is something your local Linux groups or similar might be interested in we should be able to keep the cost on any one individual or organization to a reasonable level.
Thank you for your consideration,
To be clear, Timothy is trying to gauge potential interest in a collective crowd funding source, between interested parties within the coreboot project.
This is something I'd be interested in: Making a 501(c) (tax-deductible) contribution towards this goal. Is there a way to make this happen? Can the FSF get involved in this somehow? (they have 501(c)(3) status).
Alex
On 11/09/2015 07:50 PM, Francis Rowe wrote:
On 09/11/15 21:44, Timothy Pearson wrote:
All,
After reviewing some of the comments on the ASUS KGPE-D16 being essentially too large of a system and too expensive for many people, and the fact that modern, blob-free systems are not really available in the mid-range arena, Raptor Engineering would like to offer to create a native initalization blob-free port for the ASUS KCMA-D8, which is essentially the KGPE-D16's ATX-compatible "little brother".
We would be asking $15,000 for the port, including upstreaming to the master coreboot tree. We already have extensive experience with these Family 10h/15h boards, and would be able to create a port of similar quality to the existing KGPE-D16 source in terms of both code quality and overall functionality.
If this is something you might be interested in please let me know. We are able to accept multiple payments from various sources for the same project (within limits), so if this is something your local Linux groups or similar might be interested in we should be able to keep the cost on any one individual or organization to a reasonable level.
Thank you for your consideration,
To be clear, Timothy is trying to gauge potential interest in a collective crowd funding source, between interested parties within the coreboot project.
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On 11/10/2015 10:40 PM, Alex G. wrote:
This is something I'd be interested in: Making a 501(c) (tax-deductible) contribution towards this goal. Is there a way to make this happen? Can the FSF get involved in this somehow? (they have 501(c)(3) status).
Alex
Sorry to revive an old thread, but as many of you are aware Minifree (Leah Rowe) contracted with us to port the KCMA-D8 and release it. We performed this work and the KCMA-D8 continues to operate, however Minifree has decided not to pay their contract on this work. We strongly recommend that no person do any business with Minifree or its founder Leah Rowe, as they do not honor their legally binding contracts.
- -- Timothy Pearson Raptor Engineering +1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line) +1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard) https://www.raptorengineering.com
On 01/19/2017 12:58 PM, Timothy Pearson wrote:
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On 11/10/2015 10:40 PM, Alex G. wrote:
This is something I'd be interested in: Making a 501(c) (tax-deductible) contribution towards this goal. Is there a way to make this happen? Can the FSF get involved in this somehow? (they have 501(c)(3) status).
Alex
Sorry to revive an old thread, but as many of you are aware Minifree (Leah Rowe) contracted with us to port the KCMA-D8 and release it. We performed this work and the KCMA-D8 continues to operate, however Minifree has decided not to pay their contract on this work. We strongly recommend that no person do any business with Minifree or its founder Leah Rowe, as they do not honor their legally binding contracts.
Timothy Pearson Raptor Engineering +1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line) +1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard) https://www.raptorengineering.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1 Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/
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That is sad, I guess she really went off the deep end what an awful thing to screw you guys over like that I despise customers that don't pay....after being burned a few times I now always get money up front for any consulting work over $300
This should be publicized more. They are the only retail vendor that sells ready to go libre coreboot computers I imagine a lot of people buy from them...
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On 01/19/2017 05:41 PM, Taiidan@gmx.com wrote:
On 01/19/2017 12:58 PM, Timothy Pearson wrote:
On 11/10/2015 10:40 PM, Alex G. wrote:
This is something I'd be interested in: Making a 501(c) (tax-deductible) contribution towards this goal. Is there a way to make this happen? Can the FSF get involved in this somehow? (they have 501(c)(3) status).
Alex
Sorry to revive an old thread, but as many of you are aware Minifree (Leah Rowe) contracted with us to port the KCMA-D8 and release it. We performed this work and the KCMA-D8 continues to operate, however Minifree has decided not to pay their contract on this work. We strongly recommend that no person do any business with Minifree or its founder Leah Rowe, as they do not honor their legally binding contracts.
-- Timothy Pearson Raptor Engineering +1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line) +1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard) https://www.raptorengineering.com
That is sad, I guess she really went off the deep end what an awful thing to screw you guys over like that I despise customers that don't pay....after being burned a few times I now always get money up front for any consulting work over $300
This should be publicized more. They are the only retail vendor that sells ready to go libre coreboot computers I imagine a lot of people buy from them...
We are offering at least the desktop, workstation, and server variants now:
https://www.raptorengineering.com/content/base/news/19.01.2017
Those proceeds do go to development of libre systems, so perhaps at least US customers can now purchase straight from the development vendor (Raptor) instead of a third party. I don't expect much uptake but it is an option at least, and we do bring experience on the server side that was not present with the other vendor.
- -- Timothy Pearson Raptor Engineering +1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line) +1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard) https://www.raptorengineering.com
On 01/19/2017 06:51 PM, Timothy Pearson wrote:
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On 01/19/2017 05:41 PM, Taiidan@gmx.com wrote:
On 01/19/2017 12:58 PM, Timothy Pearson wrote:
On 11/10/2015 10:40 PM, Alex G. wrote:
This is something I'd be interested in: Making a 501(c) (tax-deductible) contribution towards this goal. Is there a way to make this happen? Can the FSF get involved in this somehow? (they have 501(c)(3) status).
Alex
Sorry to revive an old thread, but as many of you are aware Minifree (Leah Rowe) contracted with us to port the KCMA-D8 and release it. We performed this work and the KCMA-D8 continues to operate, however Minifree has decided not to pay their contract on this work. We strongly recommend that no person do any business with Minifree or its founder Leah Rowe, as they do not honor their legally binding contracts.
-- Timothy Pearson Raptor Engineering +1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line) +1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard) https://www.raptorengineering.com That is sad, I guess she really went off the deep end what an awful thing to screw you guys over like that I despise customers that don't pay....after being burned a few times I now always get money up front for any consulting work over $300 This should be publicized more. They are the only retail vendor that sells ready to go libre coreboot computers I imagine a lot of people buy from them...
We are offering at least the desktop, workstation, and server variants now:
https://www.raptorengineering.com/content/base/news/19.01.2017
Those proceeds do go to development of libre systems, so perhaps at least US customers can now purchase straight from the development vendor (Raptor) instead of a third party. I don't expect much uptake but it is an option at least, and we do bring experience on the server side that was not present with the other vendor.
Timothy Pearson Raptor Engineering +1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line) +1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard) https://www.raptorengineering.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1 Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/
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Nice. It might be prudent to create a web-store where people can purchase via credit card etc, a lot of people are incredibly lazy slash antisocial and don't wish to call for a quote.
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On 01/19/2017 05:55 PM, Taiidan@gmx.com wrote:
On 01/19/2017 06:51 PM, Timothy Pearson wrote:
On 01/19/2017 05:41 PM, Taiidan@gmx.com wrote:
On 01/19/2017 12:58 PM, Timothy Pearson wrote:
On 11/10/2015 10:40 PM, Alex G. wrote:
> This is something I'd be interested in: Making a 501(c) > (tax-deductible) > contribution towards this goal. Is there a way to make this > happen? Can > the FSF get involved in this somehow? (they have 501(c)(3) status). > > Alex
Sorry to revive an old thread, but as many of you are aware Minifree (Leah Rowe) contracted with us to port the KCMA-D8 and release it. We performed this work and the KCMA-D8 continues to operate, however Minifree has decided not to pay their contract on this work. We strongly recommend that no person do any business with Minifree or its founder Leah Rowe, as they do not honor their legally binding contracts.
-- Timothy Pearson Raptor Engineering +1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line) +1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard) https://www.raptorengineering.com That is sad, I guess she really went off the deep end what an awful thing to screw you guys over like that I despise customers that don't pay....after being burned a few times I now always get money up front for any consulting work over $300 This should be publicized more. They are the only retail vendor that sells ready to go libre coreboot computers I imagine a lot of people buy from them...
We are offering at least the desktop, workstation, and server variants now:
https://www.raptorengineering.com/content/base/news/19.01.2017
Those proceeds do go to development of libre systems, so perhaps at least US customers can now purchase straight from the development vendor (Raptor) instead of a third party. I don't expect much uptake but it is an option at least, and we do bring experience on the server side that was not present with the other vendor.
-- Timothy Pearson Raptor Engineering +1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line) +1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard) https://www.raptorengineering.com
Nice. It might be prudent to create a web-store where people can purchase via credit card etc, a lot of people are incredibly lazy slash antisocial and don't wish to call for a quote.
Yeah, this was just a quick announcement for the server end mostly. It will take a couple of days to get the product pages up for the desktop / workstation "generic" systems.
- -- Timothy Pearson Raptor Engineering +1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line) +1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard) https://www.raptorengineering.com
On Thu, 19 Jan 2017 11:58:03 -0600 Timothy Pearson tpearson@raptorengineering.com wrote:
<snip>
Sorry to revive an old thread, but as many of you are aware Minifree (Leah Rowe) contracted with us to port the KCMA-D8 and release it. We performed this work and the KCMA-D8 continues to operate, however Minifree has decided not to pay their contract on this work. We strongly recommend that no person do any business with Minifree or its founder Leah Rowe, as they do not honor their legally binding contracts.
I see that my mail does belong to this list as little as this ^
However, I just want to remind you folks that there's always two sides to a story. I've seen a lot of badmouthing of Leah, especially the last few hours in IRC etc... questionable, to say the least.
So, before you make up your mind, also listen to the other side.
Thanks,
Merlin
Timothy Pearson Raptor Engineering +1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line) +1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard) https://www.raptorengineering.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1 Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/
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-- coreboot mailing list: coreboot@coreboot.org https://www.coreboot.org/mailman/listinfo/coreboot
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On 01/19/2017 07:15 PM, Merlin Büge wrote:
On Thu, 19 Jan 2017 11:58:03 -0600 Timothy Pearson tpearson@raptorengineering.com wrote:
<snip>
Sorry to revive an old thread, but as many of you are aware Minifree (Leah Rowe) contracted with us to port the KCMA-D8 and release it. We performed this work and the KCMA-D8 continues to operate, however Minifree has decided not to pay their contract on this work. We strongly recommend that no person do any business with Minifree or its founder Leah Rowe, as they do not honor their legally binding contracts.
I see that my mail does belong to this list as little as this ^
However, I just want to remind you folks that there's always two sides to a story. I've seen a lot of badmouthing of Leah, especially the last few hours in IRC etc... questionable, to say the least.
So, before you make up your mind, also listen to the other side.
Thanks,
Merlin
Since you state that the criticism is questionable, can you please indicate where you disagree with said criticism? As you say there are two sides to any story, and I have not presented a clear picture of our side for the sake of brevity and not wanting to drag the list along for the ride.
It comes down to a simple contract non-payment; no dissatisfaction with our work was registered until today when I was informed that the KCMA-D8 contract would not be paid. These contracts were originally signed back in 2015 and the goal was to make all of these systems available for sale to the community; functional sources were given to Rowe early 2016 but sadly Minifree did not list them for sale until late 2016. By that time the market had shifted further and, partially due to the ongoing controversy regarding Libreboot and the FSF, we observed a very public refusal to support Minifree further. Instead of honoring the debt incurred as part of this business opportunity, Rowe simply decided to walk away from it.
Rowe also does not have the knowledge or authority required to comment on our internal development processes regarding the KCMA-D8, including time taken, effort expended, and overall cost. The KCMA-D8 is not a trivial port in the sense of, for instance, the T400 to T500 conversion; a quick glance at the coreboot GIT repository, noting the logs referring to the C32 socket (the socket used on the KCMA-D8), will indicate that there was DDR3 initialization work required to get the KCMA-D8 operational and stabilized, in addition to handling the new layout and modified components of the mainboard itself. Our quote was fully in line with industry standards for the type of work performed.
I don't want to go into further detail on this list; this is our side and really all you need to know.
- -- Timothy Pearson Raptor Engineering +1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line) +1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard) https://www.raptorengineering.com
On Thu, 19 Jan 2017 19:38:34 -0600 Timothy Pearson tpearson@raptorengineering.com wrote:
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On 01/19/2017 07:15 PM, Merlin Büge wrote:
On Thu, 19 Jan 2017 11:58:03 -0600 Timothy Pearson tpearson@raptorengineering.com wrote:
<snip>
Sorry to revive an old thread, but as many of you are aware Minifree (Leah Rowe) contracted with us to port the KCMA-D8 and release it. We performed this work and the KCMA-D8 continues to operate, however Minifree has decided not to pay their contract on this work. We strongly recommend that no person do any business with Minifree or its founder Leah Rowe, as they do not honor their legally binding contracts.
I see that my mail does belong to this list as little as this ^
However, I just want to remind you folks that there's always two sides to a story. I've seen a lot of badmouthing of Leah, especially the last few hours in IRC etc... questionable, to say the least.
So, before you make up your mind, also listen to the other side.
Thanks,
Merlin
Since you state that the criticism is questionable, can you please indicate where you disagree with said criticism? As you say there are two sides to any story, and I have not presented a clear picture of our side for the sake of brevity and not wanting to drag the list along for the ride.
I feel quite uncomfortable discussing this here, not because it's public, but because it's rather off-topic. Also I don't want to quote freenode logs here.
I have no problem with (fair) criticism of how Leah is driving the libreboot project, and that she still did not pay for the KCMA-D8 port is clearly morally questionable.
But I have a problem with all that badmouthing of her I recently encountered, on this somewhat miscarried article on Phoronix [0], on #librecore, and #libreboot. I mean, I'm also annoyed of the GNU/FSF drama and so on, but that's no reason to personally offend her (no matter how subtle), or dragging libreboot through the mire.
Note that this is no direct response to your initial mail. I just wanted to tell people, before they are reading stuff like the article linked above:
So, before you make up your mind, also listen to the other side.
How comes that not everyone can just play nice with each other..?
That makes me sad.
Merlin
[0] https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Librecore-Formation
It comes down to a simple contract non-payment; no dissatisfaction with our work was registered until today when I was informed that the KCMA-D8 contract would not be paid. These contracts were originally signed back in 2015 and the goal was to make all of these systems available for sale to the community; functional sources were given to Rowe early 2016 but sadly Minifree did not list them for sale until late 2016. By that time the market had shifted further and, partially due to the ongoing controversy regarding Libreboot and the FSF, we observed a very public refusal to support Minifree further. Instead of honoring the debt incurred as part of this business opportunity, Rowe simply decided to walk away from it.
Rowe also does not have the knowledge or authority required to comment on our internal development processes regarding the KCMA-D8, including time taken, effort expended, and overall cost. The KCMA-D8 is not a trivial port in the sense of, for instance, the T400 to T500 conversion; a quick glance at the coreboot GIT repository, noting the logs referring to the C32 socket (the socket used on the KCMA-D8), will indicate that there was DDR3 initialization work required to get the KCMA-D8 operational and stabilized, in addition to handling the new layout and modified components of the mainboard itself. Our quote was fully in line with industry standards for the type of work performed.
I don't want to go into further detail on this list; this is our side and really all you need to know.
Timothy Pearson Raptor Engineering +1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line) +1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard) https://www.raptorengineering.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1 Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/
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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
On 01/19/2017 08:48 PM, Merlin Büge wrote:
But I have a problem with all that badmouthing of her I recently encountered, on this somewhat miscarried article on Phoronix [0], on #librecore, and #libreboot. I mean, I'm also annoyed of the GNU/FSF drama and so on, but that's no reason to personally offend her (no matter how subtle), or dragging libreboot through the mire.
Note that this is no direct response to your initial mail. I just wanted to tell people, before they are reading stuff like the article linked above:
Fair enough. I misinterpreted your intent, my apologies.
So, before you make up your mind, also listen to the other side.
How comes that not everyone can just play nice with each other..?
That makes me sad.
Same here. Let's refocus on the project and leave this behind. All that's really changed is that Raptor Engineering has effectively donated a complete port for the KCMA-D8 (CPU, RAM, and southbridge) to the project, as well as getting it upstreamed. I think that's quite enough for the x86 side for a few years...time to work on POWER! ;-)
- -- Timothy Pearson Raptor Engineering +1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line) +1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard) https://www.raptorengineering.com
On Thu, 19 Jan 2017 20:51:53 -0600 Timothy Pearson tpearson@raptorengineering.com wrote:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
On 01/19/2017 08:48 PM, Merlin Büge wrote:
But I have a problem with all that badmouthing of her I recently encountered, on this somewhat miscarried article on Phoronix [0], on #librecore, and #libreboot. I mean, I'm also annoyed of the GNU/FSF drama and so on, but that's no reason to personally offend her (no matter how subtle), or dragging libreboot through the mire.
Note that this is no direct response to your initial mail. I just wanted to tell people, before they are reading stuff like the article linked above:
Fair enough. I misinterpreted your intent, my apologies.
So, before you make up your mind, also listen to the other side.
How comes that not everyone can just play nice with each other..?
That makes me sad.
vvvvvvvv
Same here. Let's refocus on the project and leave this behind. All that's really changed is that Raptor Engineering has effectively donated a complete port for the KCMA-D8 (CPU, RAM, and southbridge) to the project, as well as getting it upstreamed. I think that's quite enough for the x86 side for a few years...time to work on POWER! ;-)
^^^^^^^^
Thank you. =)
Timothy Pearson Raptor Engineering +1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line) +1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard) https://www.raptorengineering.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1 Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/
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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256
On 19/01/17 17:58, Timothy Pearson wrote:
Sorry to revive an old thread, but as many of you are aware Minifree (Leah Rowe) contracted with us to port the KCMA-D8 and release it. We performed this work and the KCMA-D8 continues to operate, however Minifree has decided not to pay their contract on this work. We strongly recommend that no person do any business with Minifree or its founder Leah Rowe, as they do not honor their legally binding contracts.
Once again, you are painting the picture to be worse than it actually is .
I paid you 75k USD for KGPE-D16, and didn't pay the 15k for KCMA-D8.
- -- Leah Rowe
Libreboot developer
Use free software. Free as in freedom. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software
Use a free operating system, GNU+Linux. https://libreboot.org/docs/distros/ Or BSD: https://libreboot.org/docs/bsd/
Use a free BIOS. https://libreboot.org/
Support computer user freedom. https://peers.community/
Minifree Ltd, trading as Ministry of Freedom | Registered in England, No. 9361826 | VAT No. GB202190462 Registered Office: 19 Hilton Road, Canvey Island, Essex SS8 9QA, UK | Web: https://minifree.org/
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I'm just going to paste what I wrote on phoronix's comments section.
On 19/01/17 17:58, Timothy Pearson wrote:
Sorry to revive an old thread, but as many of you are aware Minifree (Leah Rowe) contracted with us to port the KCMA-D8 and release it. We performed this work and the KCMA-D8 continues to operate, however Minifree has decided not to pay their contract on this work. We strongly recommend that no person do any business with Minifree or its founder Leah Rowe, as they do not honor their legally binding contracts.
I'm perfectly happy for Raptor to publicly complain. This is only fair, and they have the right. However, there are certain facts that I would like to point out clearly for the community.
Fact 1: I paid 100% of the KGPE-D16 contract with was 75k USD I did not pay the KCMA-D8 contract which was 15k. Timothy's email implies that I barely paid any of it. The D8 was a mere extension on top of the D16 and was a few weeks work for Timothy. The article also implies that I was unwilling to pay the remaining 15k. I was actually *unable* to pay. Big difference. I fully paid for the KGPE-D16 contract, and D16 is all that Minifree sells. Most people don't use D8 and it wasn't viable to sell. I would also like to point out that several organisations now use the KGPE-D16 with libreboot. This includes the Free Software Foundation, to host their websites. I personally sacrificed a lot to pull that off. I find it deeply insulting that Timothy causes all this fuss about the D8. The D8 port was also missold to me. I was lead to believe that the hardware was readily available when it wasn't (unlike D16 hardware), so the work for the D8 was more or less a waste of resources.
Fact 2: Libreboot is not a dead project. We are currently working on a new release behind the scenes. We've merged an entirely new build system that was written from scratch, to replace the old one (the one that is "stagnant and hard to use" according to the article). It's in the libreboot git repository as I speak, it was merged a few days ago. Please mention this. The new build system is extremely modern, flexible and easy to use. It adds many features which the old build system lacked, such as (but certainly not limited to): * easy ability to build and integrate linux kernel payloads (*hint* petitboot *hint*) * integrates all chromebook-related utils, for rockchip ARM chromebooks * integrates chromeos flashrom, in addition to upstream flashrom * generally better design, more modular, easier to maintain, easier to build * plus a whole host of other advantages * about 10 new chromebooks have been added to libreboot. So much for libreboot being dead, eh?
Please also mention that Libreboot is actually abandoning coreboot and will be using Librecore as upstream. This will be covered in my upcoming FOSDEM talk too. We have been quite public about this already, on the Libreboot bug tracker.
I would also like to point out, that so far Raptor Engineering has not fixed the bug on KGPE-D16 where above 128GiB RAM becomes unstable to the point of being unusable. Only up to 128GiB works. This is less than what the contract suggests. They also released source code that was broken; memory initialization was broken on most memory modules. It took 6 months after the initial release of the KGPE-D16 source code for them to make memory initialization work, and even now raminit only works with a few modules.
This is in addition to other bugs which they haven't fixed. I also have IRC logs of private conversations between me and Timothy, where he states that he's willing to let the free/libre hardware movement crash and burn. This was before the dispute that happened yesterday regarding payment.
- -- Leah Rowe
Libreboot developer
Use free software. Free as in freedom. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software
Use a free operating system, GNU+Linux. https://libreboot.org/docs/distros/ Or BSD: https://libreboot.org/docs/bsd/
Use a free BIOS. https://libreboot.org/
Support computer user freedom. https://peers.community/
Minifree Ltd, trading as Ministry of Freedom | Registered in England, No. 9361826 | VAT No. GB202190462 Registered Office: 19 Hilton Road, Canvey Island, Essex SS8 9QA, UK | Web: https://minifree.org/
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I would also like to point out that Timothy is a psychopath. The reason I told him I couldn't pay the final 15k on the KCMA-D8 is because I would have ended up *homeless* if I did. He told me he didn't care, and that I didn't deserve a home or to eat properly. He only cared about that 15k, despite the fact that I already paid the full 75 for the D16 contract, and despite all the positive endorsement and support that I gave TALOS on libreboot.org when that campaign was still running.
I had every intention of paying Timothy that 15k, if I became able to. But now that will not happen, as a result of what he has done and said in the last 24 hours.
On 20/01/17 13:15, Leah Rowe wrote:
I'm just going to paste what I wrote on phoronix's comments section.
On 19/01/17 17:58, Timothy Pearson wrote:
Sorry to revive an old thread, but as many of you are aware Minifree (Leah Rowe) contracted with us to port the KCMA-D8 and release it. We performed this work and the KCMA-D8 continues to operate, however Minifree has decided not to pay their contract on this work. We strongly recommend that no person do any business with Minifree or its founder Leah Rowe, as they do not honor their legally binding contracts.
I'm perfectly happy for Raptor to publicly complain. This is only fair, and they have the right. However, there are certain facts that I would like to point out clearly for the community.
Fact 1: I paid 100% of the KGPE-D16 contract with was 75k USD I did not pay the KCMA-D8 contract which was 15k. Timothy's email implies that I barely paid any of it. The D8 was a mere extension on top of the D16 and was a few weeks work for Timothy. The article also implies that I was unwilling to pay the remaining 15k. I was actually *unable* to pay. Big difference. I fully paid for the KGPE-D16 contract, and D16 is all that Minifree sells. Most people don't use D8 and it wasn't viable to sell. I would also like to point out that several organisations now use the KGPE-D16 with libreboot. This includes the Free Software Foundation, to host their websites. I personally sacrificed a lot to pull that off. I find it deeply insulting that Timothy causes all this fuss about the D8. The D8 port was also missold to me. I was lead to believe that the hardware was readily available when it wasn't (unlike D16 hardware), so the work for the D8 was more or less a waste of resources.
Fact 2: Libreboot is not a dead project. We are currently working on a new release behind the scenes. We've merged an entirely new build system that was written from scratch, to replace the old one (the one that is "stagnant and hard to use" according to the article). It's in the libreboot git repository as I speak, it was merged a few days ago. Please mention this. The new build system is extremely modern, flexible and easy to use. It adds many features which the old build system lacked, such as (but certainly not limited to): * easy ability to build and integrate linux kernel payloads (*hint* petitboot *hint*) * integrates all chromebook-related utils, for rockchip ARM chromebooks * integrates chromeos flashrom, in addition to upstream flashrom * generally better design, more modular, easier to maintain, easier to build * plus a whole host of other advantages * about 10 new chromebooks have been added to libreboot. So much for libreboot being dead, eh?
Please also mention that Libreboot is actually abandoning coreboot and will be using Librecore as upstream. This will be covered in my upcoming FOSDEM talk too. We have been quite public about this already, on the Libreboot bug tracker.
I would also like to point out, that so far Raptor Engineering has not fixed the bug on KGPE-D16 where above 128GiB RAM becomes unstable to the point of being unusable. Only up to 128GiB works. This is less than what the contract suggests. They also released source code that was broken; memory initialization was broken on most memory modules. It took 6 months after the initial release of the KGPE-D16 source code for them to make memory initialization work, and even now raminit only works with a few modules.
This is in addition to other bugs which they haven't fixed. I also have IRC logs of private conversations between me and Timothy, where he states that he's willing to let the free/libre hardware movement crash and burn. This was before the dispute that happened yesterday regarding payment.
- -- Leah Rowe
Libreboot developer
Use free software. Free as in freedom. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software
Use a free operating system, GNU+Linux. https://libreboot.org/docs/distros/ Or BSD: https://libreboot.org/docs/bsd/
Use a free BIOS. https://libreboot.org/
Support computer user freedom. https://peers.community/
Minifree Ltd, trading as Ministry of Freedom | Registered in England, No. 9361826 | VAT No. GB202190462 Registered Office: 19 Hilton Road, Canvey Island, Essex SS8 9QA, UK | Web: https://minifree.org/
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On 01/20/2017 07:33 AM, Leah Rowe wrote:
I would also like to point out that Timothy is a psychopath. The reason I told him I couldn't pay the final 15k on the KCMA-D8 is because I would have ended up *homeless* if I did. He told me he didn't care, and that I didn't deserve a home or to eat properly. He only cared about that 15k, despite the fact that I already paid the full 75 for the D16 contract, and despite all the positive endorsement and support that I gave TALOS on libreboot.org when that campaign was still running.
All I wish to say is that this is not correct, taken out of context, and manipulated to sound and mean something very different than it did in normal online conversation. The statements above do not reflect reality, nor what was actually discussed.
Rowe, this is libel in its purest form. You don't need to compound your mistakes like this, nor pollute this list with private, confidential discussions. You've already admitted you are not going to pay, and Raptor has already responded by deciding to consider the KCMA-D8 a large gift to the coreboot community. All you have accomplished by doing this was make it so that we are going to have a very difficult time justifying any work on low to mid range libre software development going forward. This doesn't hurt us nearly as much as it hurts the overall community in the medium range, and I'm saddened to learn that you value the community and the continuation of reasonably powerful libre-friendly hardware so little.
- -- Timothy Pearson Raptor Engineering +1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line) +1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard) https://www.raptorengineering.com
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Alex G. -
Francis Rowe -
Leah Rowe
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Merlin Büge -
Taiidan＠gmx.com -
Timothy Pearson -
Timothy Pearson