Thread: Yup, another one of these. Help an open-source vigilante?
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Old 08-29-2011, 10:38 PM   #74
Ankh
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I am not, really, an "OS vigilante", but once was looking for an eInk platform that has a potential to run pure OS once the official software support has ended.

Unless things change dramatically with PRS-T1, which I doubt, and if you are interested in platform that can run Open Source now, or in foreseeable future, you should definitely stay away from Sony. And I am not talking about PS3 fiasco, these are the words of one of OI developers outlining what Sony has done with Linux on (now ancient) prs 505:

Quote:
Originally Posted by dottedmag View Post
SD card driver is a loadable module => Sony did not release it in source code. And yes, we did not manage to obtain any documentation from the chip manufacturer or Sony.

Even worse is power management/keys controller chip, which is managed from userspace, using proprietary binary.
The proprietary part of the software, carefully crafted not to be in violation of GPL, has effectively prevented upgrade of the system software. The reader was popular and was hacked a lot... but the fact remains that Sony hardware is definitely not what one would call "OSS friendly".
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