[Sugar-devel] Announce: OLPC software strategy.

[Sascha Silbe]

Excerpts from Chris Ball's message of Wed Jul 07 22:01:26 +0000 2010:

> Now that the 10.1.1 release for XO-1.5 is out, it's a good time to
> talk about OLPC's software strategy for the future.  We've got a few
> announcements to make:
[...]
Thanks for keeping us posted.

> EC-1.75 open source EC code:
> ============================
> 
> OLPC is proud to announce that the XO-1.75 embedded controller will
> have an open codebase (with a small exception, see below).  After much
> behind-the-scenes effort, EnE has agreed to provide us with a public
> version of the KB3930 datasheet and is allowing our new code to be
> made public.

Yay! Thanks to everyone who has made this happen.

> The exception is because EnE has not released the low-level details on
> the PS/2 interface in the KB3930, so there will be some code that is
> not available -- relative to the codebase this is a very small amount
> of code.  The GPL licensing exception will allow for linking against
> this closed code.  We're going to investigate ways to move away from
> this code in the future.  (As far as we're aware, this will make the
> XO-1.75 the first laptop with open embedded controller code!)

I trust the license will allow me to:
1. Build a new (complete, working) firmware image
2. Install it on my own XO-1.75.
3. Distribute the image (+ source) to other XO-1.75 users so they can install it.

What about the compiler? IIUC currently a commercial compiler is required. If that continues to be the case (as I expect it to), would it be possible for OLPC to provide the (probably very few) users interested in hacking on the EC code access to a machine having this compiler installed? I.e. does the license OLPC has for this compiler allow more than one user (on the same machine) to use it (if necessary sequentially, ensured by using a lock file) and would OLPC be willing to give users access to such a machine?

> We've begun working on modifications to Sugar to enable touchscreen
> and multitouch use (the XO-1.75 will have a touchscreen, as will
> future OLPC tablets based on its design), and we'll continue to do so.

I'll be curious what comes out of it.

Sascha

--
http://sascha.silbe.org/
http://www.infra-silbe.de/
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