5 ms·

Broadcom is awful for the open source world, it is worse than Oracle on the software side I think. TI/Freescale and to some extent Qualcomm are open to OSS. I h

by ausjke 9y ago

Broadcom is awful for the open source world, it is worse than Oracle on the software side I think. TI/Freescale and to some extent Qualcomm are open to OSS. I hope this acquisition to fail.

leoedin 9y ago
This would be my concern. Qualcomm is trying to buy NXP, who make a whole load of really great chips and microcontrollers (including everything made by Freescale). If the Broadcom attitude eventually makes it down to the NXP divisions, it could really ruin a good range of products.
- craftyguy 9y ago
  Oh no! Not NXP! :(
  - petecox 9y ago
    Lack of diversity! What happens to the Rpi and Librem 5 foss-friendly communities if Broadcom buy Qualcomm who buy NXP?
zanny 9y ago
Neither are particularly friendly, just Qualcomm acquired an open wifi business and only slowly bled it into a proprietary firmware driver. Qualcomm is largely responsible for how proprietary and draconian most mobile phones are, though.
- ausjke 9y ago
  true, Qualcomm was hostile to OSS, until it bought Atheros, and it kept Atheros open, so Qualcomm is only partially friendly to OSS.
  - metilda 9y ago
    What are you talking about? Qualcomm is still hostile to free software, forcing binary blobs down your throat if you want to use an 802.11ac chipset. Ath10k might be open source, but everything interesting is hidden away by the proprietary firmware, like on Intel and Broadcom chips.
revelation 9y ago
Broadcom are employing Eric Anholt to build a fully open source, upstream DRM/Mesa Gallium driver for the VideoCore 4 (https://anholt.github.io/twivc4/ https://anholt.github.io/twivc4/) and assorted Raspberry Pi hardware. Now that's hardly a big focus of Broadcoms business but you can pretty much run a fully open source GPU accelerated Linux userland on the Raspberry Pis with those efforts. Bluetooth and WiFi is proprietary though, if I remember correctly. And that is what Broadcom makes money with.
- ausjke 9y ago
  RPI is an exception instead of norm. Other than that you got nothing, not just software, you got nothing on its chips either. I avoided Broadcom on all my designs as much as I can.
  - metilda 9y ago
    They're a brutal vendor to work with unless your huuuge :(
srcmap 9y ago
Raspberry PI's SOC is made by Broadcom. They did a decent job in open source that part. I heard even the GPU driver/library was opensource for PI. GPU driver/library was definitively not opensource for the Freescale's IMX6 as far as I know. Feel free to point out other issues with Broadcom opensource.
- ausjke 9y ago
  the RPI is an exception, it did not come easy. Freescale would love to open its GPU etc, however it is licensing the IP from other vendors that Freescale has no right to open source it, yes it would be nice if Freescale can get that part work. Otherwise, Freescale is fairly open on everything it owns and makes.
  - metilda 9y ago
    The Raspberry Pi having a non-closed bootchain, let alone a free driver is a feat of tens of thousands of people pressuring Broadcom, and a few people doing the hard work to free as much of the RPI as they could. Having to run Raspbian just to boot the board was a dark time!
    - bob_theslob646 9y ago
      >Having to run Raspbian just to boot the board was a dark time! Is this some sort of joke I am missing becuase now the pi can run more than just raspbian?
      - xfer 9y ago
        What? I used to run 9front(a plan9 fork) on raspberry pi back in 2013. Their bootloader is closed source, so you have to use that to load your kernel.
- btian 9y ago
  That was the old Broadcom. The new company was formed in 2015 from acquisition by Avago Technologies.

by ausjke 9y ago

Broadcom is awful for the open source world, it is worse than Oracle on the software side I think. TI/Freescale and to some extent Qualcomm are open to OSS. I hope this acquisition to fail.

leoedin 9y ago

This would be my concern. Qualcomm is trying to buy NXP, who make a whole load of really great chips and microcontrollers (including everything made by Freescale). If the Broadcom attitude eventually makes it down to the NXP divisions, it could really ruin a good range of products.

craftyguy 9y ago
Oh no! Not NXP! :(
- petecox 9y ago
  Lack of diversity! What happens to the Rpi and Librem 5 foss-friendly communities if Broadcom buy Qualcomm who buy NXP?

zanny 9y ago

Neither are particularly friendly, just Qualcomm acquired an open wifi business and only slowly bled it into a proprietary firmware driver. Qualcomm is largely responsible for how proprietary and draconian most mobile phones are, though.

ausjke 9y ago
true, Qualcomm was hostile to OSS, until it bought Atheros, and it kept Atheros open, so Qualcomm is only partially friendly to OSS.
- metilda 9y ago
  What are you talking about? Qualcomm is still hostile to free software, forcing binary blobs down your throat if you want to use an 802.11ac chipset. Ath10k might be open source, but everything interesting is hidden away by the proprietary firmware, like on Intel and Broadcom chips.

revelation 9y ago

Broadcom are employing Eric Anholt to build a fully open source, upstream DRM/Mesa Gallium driver for the VideoCore 4 (https://anholt.github.io/twivc4/ https://anholt.github.io/twivc4/) and assorted Raspberry Pi hardware. Now that's hardly a big focus of Broadcoms business but you can pretty much run a fully open source GPU accelerated Linux userland on the Raspberry Pis with those efforts. Bluetooth and WiFi is proprietary though, if I remember correctly. And that is what Broadcom makes money with.

ausjke 9y ago
RPI is an exception instead of norm. Other than that you got nothing, not just software, you got nothing on its chips either. I avoided Broadcom on all my designs as much as I can.
- metilda 9y ago
  They're a brutal vendor to work with unless your huuuge :(

srcmap 9y ago

Raspberry PI's SOC is made by Broadcom. They did a decent job in open source that part. I heard even the GPU driver/library was opensource for PI. GPU driver/library was definitively not opensource for the Freescale's IMX6 as far as I know. Feel free to point out other issues with Broadcom opensource.

ausjke 9y ago
the RPI is an exception, it did not come easy. Freescale would love to open its GPU etc, however it is licensing the IP from other vendors that Freescale has no right to open source it, yes it would be nice if Freescale can get that part work. Otherwise, Freescale is fairly open on everything it owns and makes.
- metilda 9y ago
  The Raspberry Pi having a non-closed bootchain, let alone a free driver is a feat of tens of thousands of people pressuring Broadcom, and a few people doing the hard work to free as much of the RPI as they could. Having to run Raspbian just to boot the board was a dark time!
  - bob_theslob646 9y ago
    >Having to run Raspbian just to boot the board was a dark time! Is this some sort of joke I am missing becuase now the pi can run more than just raspbian?
    - xfer 9y ago
      What? I used to run 9front(a plan9 fork) on raspberry pi back in 2013. Their bootloader is closed source, so you have to use that to load your kernel.
btian 9y ago
That was the old Broadcom. The new company was formed in 2015 from acquisition by Avago Technologies.