[Elecraft] OT: Open Source Code

[Bob McGraw K4TAX]

EXACTLY!

73

Bob, K4TAX


On 7/1/2019 4:35 PM, Don Wilhelm wrote:
> Bill,
>
> That is quite generous of you, and all those who provide public domain 
> code.
>
> Each of those software packages you mention run on a computer, and are 
> a complete package within itself.  That is different than a situation 
> where firmware and software are tightly integrated.
>
> This being the Elecraft reflector, (and I being a former of the 
> Elecraft support team) can say that support of the Elecraft gear would 
> be a real mess if the firmware were made either public domain or open 
> source where customers could alter the code.
> Because the hardware function and firmware function are tightly 
> integrated, it is difficult to determine whether there is a hardware 
> or firmware failure.
> If the code were to be open source or public domain, the first 
> response of the support team would have to be "download and install 
> the official firmware and try again.  Support for non-Elecraft written 
> code would be a very costly venture for Elecraft.
>
> 73,
> Don W3FPR
>
> On 7/1/2019 5:13 PM, Bill Frantz wrote:
>> I must strongly disagree with Bob. Before I retired, most of my 
>> career was spent writing code. This code became the property of my 
>> employer, and when they went bankrupt, I could not access it, support 
>> it, or use it. I never want to be in that situation again.
>>
>> I will write open source code, but prefer to write public domain 
>> code. My reward comes when people use my code for their own purposes.
>>
>> I will also point out that much of the code that supports the 
>> Internet is open source. For example: the Firefox browser, the clang 
>> and gcc compilers, the apache web server, the openssl encrypted 
>> transport layer suite, and the code that does basic Internet routing. 
>> The Linux OS is open source. In amateur radio, wsjt-x, cocoaModem, 
>> and N1MM are open source.
>>
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