[OpenBIOS] award bios source code - please send requests

[Ronald G Minnich]

On Mon, 27 Aug 2001, Gavin Robert Brewer wrote:

> > I'm just really glad it's on the openbios list. If this discussion had
> > appeared on any list I own I would have had to moderate the list or filter
> > out the offers for BIOS source or just plain reject mail from people who
> > offered it.
> >
> > Yes, I think it's a terrible thing.
>
> Do you work for American Megatrends?

No, I run the linuxbios project. You may be familiar with it, it is Open
Source, GPL, it works, and it has ZERO code based on viewing proprietary
sources. That's how OpenBIOS should be. I think anybody who contributes
code to an Open Source BIOS project after viewing the Award BIOS is doing
the project a huge disfavor, and jeopardizing it. The algorithms for
bringing up hardware are incredibly hairy, and it would be too easy for
Award to claim pollution if they spotted a pattern.

I think making the OpenBIOS list a relay point for the Award BIOS source
is absolute stupidity -- not on Stefan's part, but on the part of the
people who are offering and accepting this code.

Do you remember 1991? ATT sued a bunch of BSD projects and tied them up in
court for over a year. It was a nightmare. That entire trial turned on the
inclusion of four files in the end, but it was hell for everyone
concerned, and it cost a lot of people a lot of money. It set the BSD
effort back by over a year. If that happens to the OpenBIOS project the
party is over.

I'll be polite and ignore the rest of your letter.

ron

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