[coreboot] ASUS KCMA-D8 workstation board port offer

[Timothy Pearson]

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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 at 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
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