[Elecraft] Elecraft Digest, Vol 124, Issue 11

[David Gilbert]

I can just imagine the resource drain it would inflict upon Elecraft to 
investigate all the possible unexpected and unwanted side effects that 
might be buried in open source modifications to their products that 
could easily affect the broader reputation of their products in the 
marketplace, especially given the memory space and performance 
constraints of an embedded processor.  Not to mention, of course, the 
possibility of somebody burying a small chunk of malicious code.

I don't think your proposal represents low risk at all, particularly to 
Elecraft, but also to that portion of the user base who even stumble 
over officially released firmware upgrades and would now have to sort 
out multiple options competing for the same limited number of bytes of 
code, and in ways that may not be compatible. Elecraft's brand image 
hangs on EVERYTHING associated with their products ... not just the 
things they create themselves.  If somebody contributes a modification 
that adds a feature but harms something else, the rig bears the brunt of 
the loss in reputation.

I think possibly you may be the one that doesn't understand what this 
actually entails.

Dave   AB7E

p.s.  I missed your callsign, Andrew.  Care to give it?



On 8/19/2014 1:02 AM, Andrew White wrote:
>
> You don't seem to understand what this entails. Elecraft would still
> control software updates including open source contributions. The Internet
> is built on open source protocols and software and ham radio manufacturers
> would be wise to follow suit. This is a low risk, high gain move with
> nearly zero switching cost.