[coreboot] ASUS KCMA-D8 workstation board port offer

Fri Jan 20 14:33:16 CET 2017

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

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/