Zii Egg Plaszma SDK official announcement: root access is denied to developers
For the love of all that’s holy… I received my Zii Egg today about 3 hours ago and discover that not only does the Egg not dual-boot Android 1.5 and the Zii’s Plaszma operating systems (there are apps which switch them from one to another which takes about 20 minutes) but in the developer forum, which I’d barely begun to start perusing, there’s this announcement:
“Dear all,
Just to update you all on the situation with Plaszma questions you have asked.
Root access is now protected because we had some problems with customers returning bricked devices after they altered the software. We are looking into resolving this.
We realise that shell access may be very convenient for developers and are working to enable shell and, where necessary, root access as rapidly as possible. We see a need to support multiple types of developers: those developing applications which will run on retail devices built on the Plaszma platform such as the Zii MediaBook or Web Box; and those developing OEM devices based on custom hardware and/or software. We will provide more details as soon as possible.
ZiiLABS respect and recognise the open sourced licenses as used in the kernel of the Plaszma Software. Full details of which can been found in the Settings>About>Legal menu on the Zii EGG of every device.
Due to Plaszma still being in pre-release we are still in the process of preparing all necessary code for release.
Many thanks
Andrew Audsley”
The first response in the forums came from torpor:
“You have released a product based on GPL to your public – developers – already. The source is not included, nor is there any mechanism for the user to upgrade/replace the GPL’ed libraries as you have provided them.
Thus, you are in violation of the GPL, and a day longer delay to addressing this issue is intolerable. ZiiLabs cannot, and must not, expect to get away with violating the GPL for any reason whatsoever. If you do not agree to the terms of the GPL, do not ship GPL licensed software as part of your product.
I am waiting, quite eagerly (as I am an enthusiastic Plaszma developer normally), for you to address this issue before I continue with Zii development. I *cannot* and *will not* support a company that is knowingly and flagrantly violating the GPL to serve its own purposes.
Do not think lightly of this issue!”
This is apparently in response to torpor’s earlier post about the most recent firmware update here:
“I would like to know when ZiiLabs are going to release the sourcecode for the GPL’ed software currently shipping in the Zii Egg?
ZiiLabs is currently in gross violation of the GPL on multiple counts: Kernel, /usr/lib, userspace binaries, and is liable for this issue.
Also, I would like to know when ZiiLabs are going to lift the restrictions that are currently in place and which prevent the replacement of all GPL’ed code on the Zii Egg with new versions?
I expect a response on this issue very soon – if there is no response within 48 hours, I will assume that ZiiLabs intends to continue violating the GPL, and I will report this fact to the relevant governing bodies, and license owners, immediately. This includes but is not limited to the FSF, EFF, gpl-violations.org.
ZiiLabs cannot continue to grossly violate the GPL (by not providing full sources to all GPL components, such as kernel and libs, and by locking out users of the GPL’ed code from being able to update these components manually themselves) and ZiiLabs cannot expect little or no response from the community of individuals who are currently complying with the GPL and have contributed to the codebase currently being illegally shipped in the Zii Egg product.
A response is required within 48 hours, and steps to remedy the numerous violations of the GPL by ZiiLabs must be taken soon, or else this will turn legal.”
Not exactly a reassuring introduction to the Zii developer community. I shall try to be patient, as my long-term plots seem a good fit with the Zii platform’s roadmap and hardware. I’ll keep ya’ll updated.
6 Comments
Leave a CommentJames
Sounds like we both got our Zii eggs at the same time. I was interested in the android half, but unfortunately a lot of the hardware is not supported. I really think if they gave root access and opened up the sources we could get more of the hardware working. I noticed that there are libraries for the gps and other hardware already in the android distro. It will be interesting to see where things go from here.
November 11, 2009 @ 1:06 PM
torpor
I am torpor – so far, ZiiLabs are stalling and hedging and not going anywhere with the GPL sources release. I have been told it will happen “this week”, but I was told this last week as well .. so .. we shall see.
December 2, 2009 @ 3:51 AM
runagate
Good to see you here, torpor.
You remind me that I forgot to post about the new firmware. I haven’t got a chance to see if it’s more promising aside from reading the ZiiLABS forum posts – by the developers; the moderators don’t seem to have much to say about, well, anything.
And as you say, they’re certainly not doing their reputation or their product’s future any favors by their behavior - the worst of which is simply not communicating with their developers and telling them what the hell is going on.
December 2, 2009 @ 4:27 AM
Peter Kirn
Wow, what a complete mess. I’m really happy I didn’t pick one of these up. I certainly hope they get their act together, as there’s certainly potential here. Someone is going to figure out a smart Android-based media device.
I guess part of the problem here is, cool as the Zii/Plaszma side is, a lot of people will be understandably interested in Android development — partly because Creative hasn’t given any hope yet that anyone will adopt Plazma, including even Creative.
December 2, 2009 @ 7:29 AM
runagate
As it turns out, now that I’ve finally gotten Ubuntu, Eclipse and the most recent SDK working enough to compile applications (merely their demo .pzp app, thus far) it still seems so promising. There’s really a lot of development-oriented content to their SDK, a lot of power under the hood, the best set of sensors in a 10-point multitouch device… but who bought this thing not expecting root access?! That’s the whole reason not to develop for iPhone or any of the other proprietary, non-OEM gadgets.
We shall see. I’ve not abandoned hope, but I can certainly see that the short-sightedness of ZiiLABS could well capsize the poetential of the entire Zii brand.
December 6, 2009 @ 12:54 AM
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