Firmware Components Oss Procedure?


StarG

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copilot.mindforge.cc
This one buggered me for quite some time and dates still back when GPH offered their GP2x as their main unit.

Has it been attempted so far to ask or persuade GPH officials to release (parts) of their launcher application or their flash player binary to a source-code release, probably under the hood of an OSS license like gpl or apache?

Would they at least listen to if asked kindly? My only experience back in this field was a taiwanese IC company offering a chipset for usage in SDIO (here: sd cards with built-in WIFI) cards. They acknowledged the request but did not plan to do so or were even unable to do because with property issues with 3rd parties. Which might be the case with the flash player (i'm unsure on which terms they stand with adobe, however their (adobes) main intention *should be* to get it running in good health on as many platforms as possible)
 
Peter R said:
GPH paid to have the flash player devloped so I see absolutely no reason why they would want to go ahead and release this under an open source license :huh: .

Maybe because they want to fuel the community to sell more devices? *Crosses fingers*
 
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IMHO it would payout for GPH if played out correctly. Their flash port is a basically okish port however with quite some quirks around so in the end its not working as planned. I just think they are lacking the manpower to get it right, things need time & personal investment to shine. Apply the same to rest of their works as the launcher isnt bad however would need some speed optimization, sublaunchers for ROMs / MODs a few improvements in menu layout and my biggest issue: their flat listing of the games without categories / directories. Not quite bad as a starting point but could need a little polish applied.

As with the flash player: they assumably hired an external company to do the porting. However if i were GPH i would demand my money back as its not working perfectly (quirks everywhere). It probably fails even the adobe compliance testing program. However i guess its not badly broken, some minor patching could do small wonders in terms of compatibility / functionality. (I'm rephrasing myselves here it's the same issue)

With an OSS process they would rightfully deserve a reputation as open-source friendly vendor and as Darkknight512 pointed out: improvements to the firmware should affect prospective buyers too ;)
 
I'd be happy with an upgrade to support newer flash games or movies. I know it's not very likely to happen but i'd be happy ^^()
 
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