Re: [Gumstix-users] What can and cannot be done with gumstix.

[Zach W. <zw...@su...>]

Gordon Kruberg wrote:
[snip]
> I would like to post a bare Eagle Project that can be added to.
> 
> Any other ideas?

How about immediately posting the files for the daughterboard, including
the gerbers?  I've gotten two (physical) headaches from trying to figure
out where the traces go on the board while trying to figure out how the
schematic maps onto it, so I personally would love to see these files.

This would be incredibly useful for those of us wanting to really hack
on our Waysmalls, and they also happen to be something that Gumstix,
Inc. should be able to provide for the community without any delay.
As it is, I've thought about putting something usable together using
some high-res photos, compositing the two sides of the daughterboard
using some transparency effects.  I just can't figure out how to make
that take practically no effort yet still produce something usable.

If the community had the Waysmall board design as a starting point,
Gumstix, Inc. would be able to incorporate any innovations or
improvements that we made back into the production design.  This would
effectively allow them to focus their R&D dollars on the stik itself.
With this idea in mind, can they afford to *not* release their
daughterboard design? ;)

Finally, I would expect such designs to be released under a BSD-esque
license; this allows for new derivative designs to be created without
being forced to open the changes.  While other might consider this a
trivial matter, it becomes of critical importance for those of us
considering the development of marketable designs.

Releasing the files under a license that does not provide such an option
would effectively render them useless for anyone wanting to take a
design to market.  In fact, those designs would become a liability for
such makers, because they would then need to be able to show that any
similar design was "cleanly" engineered (i.e. was not produced as a
derivative work).

While I'm all in favor of the freedoms enforced by the GPL, capitalist
economics make the use of an "adamantly open" design all but impossible
to use in a startup venture, as you will effectively lose your momentum
before you even get going.

I believe that the GPL would be only be the "right" choice for community
based hardware designs if the inventing individual or business wants to
proactively short-circuit any possible opportunities for present or
future competition to achieve economic gains from a closed derivative
design.  (Note: putting a design out under the GPL does not provent an
design from being re-licensed under different terms, provided its
creator(s) are willing to make such available.)

The only catch is that they must first have secured their own customer
base or risk falling behind before even leaving the starting blocks.
This view makes the GPL look like a veritable non-sequiter for any new
hardware designs upon which a company intends to base a revenue stream;
however, such is certainly possible with "incidental" designs such as
the present daughterboards (as they are useless without buying a stik).

At present, I don't see any good reasons to use the GPL license with the
Waysmall daughterboards, yet these last points are also precisely why I
won't be harping on Gumstix, Inc. to release the schematics for the
mainboard anytime soon.  I recognize that they still need to get ahead
in the race into which they've entered before such a move would result
in anything other than their eventual "startup suicide."  I hope others
will cut them the same slack on this topic for the same reason.

Cheers,

Zach