I'm not sure... are you looking to validate a specific outcome?
A5 - non-profit foundation... "It is important to me, because it increases the availability of information." and "It is important to me, because it increases the possibility of participation.". Are these viable assumptions?
In my personal case, I am saddened that so few have taken on the task of updating the OSD software. I would do it myself, pretty much right now, if I could download and unpack a tarball of the sourcecode and compile it into an image or somesuch under Windows. What's keeping me? I have Tortoise SVN, and it is SLOW. The bits are arranged in branches under different paths, with no clear from-root web interface. Will I know I have everything until compile time? Even so, will I know I have everything or will I suspect that my compilation kit is screwed up somewhere? Hell, even RISC OS is available as a bit gzip tar file. Why not the OSD code, so - one single easy download will get all I need.
Second problem? The necessity to install and understand a completely different operating system in order to see if I can attempt to build this software. Come on, the ARM is one of the most popular embedded system CPUs. Are you telling me there's NOTHING under Windows that can assemble/compile/link ARM code? No version of GCC that can cross-compile?
I am also saddened that the information on the hardware is difficult to come by. No doubt Neuros have the tech docs of the TMS320DM320. You try asking TI about it. Firstly, the DM320 doesn't exist, and secondly for bogus "security" reasons, they only disclose to companies and educational establishments. This, frankly, is a huge impediment. Luckily I found a complete three-volume technical reference to the DM320 on a Chinese site (ho ho, there's a surprise) with a little help from Google translation. I've stuck a copy on my blog, if you're involved in the OSD and wish to understand the hardware better, I've collected all of the relevant datasheets. Go get 'em before anybody notices!
Thirdly, I
like my OSD. I use it a lot. I am loathe to attempt playing with something I use a lot. However if Neuros have a spare one (or, hell, even just the board with no casing) kicking around - get in touch and discuss!
But, really, the non-profit or for-profit distinction is not guaranteed to make a heck of a lot of difference in the level of support. What you need is EASILY accessible code, and EASILY accessible tech docs. The code, Neuros could do something about. [actually, given I'm using OSDng, maybe I should go hassle somebody else?
] The docs are TI's paranoia, and out of everybody's hands but TI.
Oh, and epic fail for: "'Hacker Culture' implies a development culture, made up of
hundreds of thousands of distributed programmers voluntarily producing, sharing, and supporting their software with no monetary compensation for their efforts." I have emphasised the part I have issue with. Yes, there are some success stories with
hundreds of thousands, but many successful projects are vastly smaller groups. Even one person alone can fit into the "hacker culture". It is a vision, a concept, and idealism. Numbers are nice, but not essential.
