Poseidon USB for AROS

[Targhan]

San Antonio – September 22, 2008 – power2PEOPLE is pleased to announce its latest bounty initiative. Chris Hodges, the original author of the Poseidon USB system, has proposed to undertake the task of porting Poseidon USB to AROS and release his work under the APL (AROS Public License) transforming Poseidon USB into an open source project.

 For this to become a reality, it will require a total amount of donations of at least $4000. For a complete list of objectives, included files, and exclusions please visit the power2PEOPLE website.

[Trev]

Very cool, Chris.

[Crumb]

Great news! Thank you Chris. Already donated $40 :-)

[adonay]

Cool . I will donate 5% when i get my paycheck. Chris rock!

[pixie]

@ adonay:
80€!? :O Holly cow! Cool!

[xeron]

I bet Elbox will be all over that ;-)

[tonyyeb]

$4000!?!  :-o

[jj]

damm xeron beat me to it, bet not long after thats ported elbopx will have a enctypted usb stack for the spider  :-D

[pixie]

4000$ is what, a two month job? I think there's way more work involved in Poseidon, and then we'll have it open sourced...

[mihcael]

damm xeron beat me to it, bet not long after thats ported elbopx will have a enctypted usb stack for the spider

I guess that is why it is $4000 and not $400??

[Trev]

@pixie

That would be one cheap programmer. My guess is that Chris already has a faily good idea of how the work should be done, assuming it's not already done. He just wants a bit of compensation. The bounties are popular (and reasonably successful), so it makes sense to follow that scheme.

@all

If Elbox did that and didn't adhere to the AROS Public License ... well, they'd be doing pretty much what they're already doing, I guess (there's some Linux kernel stuff on their web site, no source code available).

[kolla]

(there's some Linux kernel stuff on their web site, no source code available).

I tried to follow up that once. The problem is that the kernel is not done by Elbox, and the guy who once did it most likely does not have the sources anymore.

When I contacted him, he wasnt even aware that Elbox had put it on their site - he had just posted it on the mediator list for someone to test. Elbox said they would not mind putting up the sources, if they got them, even if they contained stuff normally disclosed by NDA.

Sadly, the sources never reappeared. :-(

[dammy]

If Elbox did that and didn't adhere to the AROS Public License ... well, they'd be doing pretty much what they're already doing, I guess (there's some Linux kernel stuff on their web site, no source code available).

APL is horrid license IMO with holes in you can drive a supertanker through.  Regardless what RDB cowboys do and don't do, APL needs to be phased out  and replaced by LGPL/GPL licensing.   You have a slim chance of getting someone to push the GPL/LGPL licensing infringements, but under APL, you have absolutely no one to assist with infringements.

Dammy

[Trev]

@kolla

And therein lies a major criticism of the GPL, since you can't legal distribute the binary without providing some form of access to the source.

@dammy

Or some other OSI-approved license; however, if you want the backing of the Free Software Foundation and other advocacy groups, the GPL is the way to go.

[pixie]

If you're to lpgl the thing you might do it BSD...remember, no schedule and rocking kind of attitude? ;-)