Re: [myhdl-list] New MyHDL Tutorial Available.

[Christopher F. <chr...@gm...>]

On 4/14/11 7:27 PM, Jan Decaluwe wrote:
> On 04/13/2011 05:32 PM, Andrew Stone wrote:
>> Hi Christopher,
>>
>> Please explain what you mean by:
>>
>> "So the course material is not strictly open source.  By contributing
>> to it, you are allowing me to make some money off of it."
>>
>> Please state what the license to the course material is.
>>
>> There has never been any requirement that nobody make any money off
>> open source!  So I think that your argument to keep it closed source
>> for that reason is weak.  For example people can use OSS in their
>> daily jobs, include it as part of selling products, teach courses on
>> it, write books, consulting, etc.
>>
>> If your idea is that since this course material is closed source,
>> then only you (or people who license the course material from you)
>> will be able to use it to teach courses, then I shall certainly
>> retract my offer to test it on the Lattice Brevia XP2.  And
>> regardless of the goodness that you are currently bringing, shall
>> heartily wish that you find another endeavor.
>>
>> However, I don't think that it would come to that.  Just open-source
>> the course material.  If and when myHdl becomes popular, you'll have
>> plenty of paid opportunities as the author of the course.  After all,
>> who would you pay to hear a lecture about myHdl from: Jan D. or me
>> :-).
>>
>> Frankly, if you keep it closed source, you are simply inviting a
>> competitor.  Once you've created a market for training classes,
>> consulting, etc, someone else will make a completely separate
>> open-source course and rapidly overtake your course in popularity due
>> to its somewhat "free" nature.  The value is not in the actual course
>> material...the value is in the generation of the market.  Fortunately
>> that cannot ever be cornered because of the OSS nature of myHdl.
>> Your best strategy is to dis-invite competition by open-sourcing your
>> training material.
>>
>> Regards, Andrew
>
> Andrew:
>
> Thanks for these convincing arguments in favor of open source
> solutions. I fully agree, and I hope people will develop MyHDL
> training material along these lines.
>
> Jan
>
>>
>>

I agree with you both as well.  I will not be contributing to training 
efforts that are not open-source and more specifically efforts that are 
not under a LGPL type license.

I apologize, I never asked for or intended any public mailing-list / 
newsgroup to be an avenue to advertise a commercial product.

If it is not know, for full disclosure, I have an interest in 
DSPtronics.  I provide design consulting for the boards.  I have very 
little to no involvement with the sales and manufacturing of the boards. 
  I am happy to forward or answer questions.  Anyone looking at a 
development boards should look at the many different types and decide 
which board is appropriate for them.  I hope the users of this group to 
remain development board agnostic.

Chris Felton