Raspberry Pi bootloader license

Closed source bootloader with very restricted license.

http://www.cnx-software.com/2016/07/19/raspberry-pi-bootloader-license-preludes-it-to-run-on-competing-broadcom-bcm283x-boards/

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

and people slammed M$ and Apple for there attempts at restricting the loading of other operating systems.

I don't imagine many people will will in practice use this device in commercial projects and i would be intrigued to see how they intend to police the distribution of the bootloader software.

I think its a great device and about time someone actually produced a truly compatible clone of the board. Perhaps we will see more development going into the alternative bootloader that is truly Free/Libre.

Gravelrash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> and people slammed M$ and Apple for there attempts
> at restricting the loading of other operating
> systems.
>

:) I know. Ironic isn't it?

> I don't imagine many people will will in practice
> use this device in commercial projects and i would
> be intrigued to see how they intend to police the
> distribution of the bootloader software.
>
> I think its a great device and about time someone
> actually produced a truly compatible clone of the
> board.

> Perhaps we will see more development going
> into the alternative bootloader that is truly
> Free/Libre.

Hope she will be successful in getting it working well enough:

http://www.cnx-software.com/2016/05/16/preliminary-open-source-bootloader-for-raspberry-pi-boards-released/

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/2016 01:11PM by bodhi.

Gravelrash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't imagine many people will will in practice
> use this device in commercial projects and i would
> be intrigued to see how they intend to police the
> distribution of the bootloader software.

The bootloader is the last of the issues of Raspi. The SoC itself has crappy connectivity, anything from Allwinner or Rockchip has WAY better connectivity, is easy to find in small quantities, it is unbrickable (bootROM is hardcoded to looks for bootloaders from sdcard first), and does not require gpu firmwares.
They are supported in linux by team sunxi that is mainlining all their efforts, currently they are pretty usable.