Re: Free Technology (was: Re: gEDA-user: Electric clothing and gEDA at NYLUG!)

[Ales Hvezda <ahvezda@moria.seul.org>]

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-- Cut here --
From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>

    In hardware it means you don't have to have Super Duper Only Factory
    That This Wonderful Product Can Be Built in. You can be John Somebody
    and your machine may be cheap electric drill, soldering iron, and you
    don't have to choose particular PCB manufacturer. You can choose any
    PCB factory in the world you like and is able to process Gerber RS274-X :)

I agree that is desirable, but it may be unfeasible where chips are
concerned.  That is why I have said that free hardware (a term many
others use) is not important the way free software is.
If a chip design is free, we still can't turn it into a chip
without a fab line.

I'm not against free chip designs.  I think it is good to develop
them.  I just don't think they are ethically essential, the way free
software is.