Although an interesting argument, it is quite a problematic one. Basically all components are proprietary; even a 1k resistor and a 2N2222 transistor.
you don't get what i'm saying : there is 100 manufacturers making 1k resistors. if you only have 2k resistors in house you can make 1k by paralleling two 1k's. or putting 10 100 ohms in series.
if you don't have a 2n2222 you can stick in a bc107 or bc547.
if you don't have the atmega328 and only a pic .. you are stuck...
if atmel goes tits-up the entire design is dead. chances of 1k resistors disappearing or 2n2222 transistors disappearing are nil. it can be replaced. there are alternates.
not so for a one of a kind chip... you could port it to a different cpu but what if i use a special feature that no other chip has. that is what i'm getting at.
let;s say i make an open source oscilloscope using a massive altera fpga , analog devices dsp and a maxim ultrafast a/d convertor. i release everything : 8 layer board floorplan , verilog code, dsp code . the whole shebang.
if you are going to whine it was made with altium you can also whine 'why 8 layers, i can't etch that at home... why altera i want xilinx .. why bga i can't solder that .. why surface mount and not thru hole ? why verilog and not vhdl ? why an analog devices dsp and not a pic ? why this super expensice ceramic chip with heatslug. couldn;t you do this by multiplexing 4 cheapo ones ?
there is just no pleasing everybody.
an open hardware design should release the following:
- the source files , irrespective of what cad tools they were made with. lots of cad tools can read each other formats.
- a pdf version of the schematic and pcb layers scaled 1:1
- the gerber and nc drill files
- all sourcecode
with that information you can have the board made and build it -as-is-
or you can pull in the gerber , decompile it (not my fault if your cad tool does not have that capability. get a better one) , or even better import my cad files and run with em ( again not my fault if your cad tool cannot read my cad tools files. My cad tool eats almost any cad format out there, mentor, pads, allegro, zuken, eagle , orcad... it eats everything. if kicad can't read my files: go hound the kicad makers to build importers. not my fault your tool is limited. if every tool was identical we would only be using 1 tool.
by releasing the above i have given you all you need. you have the full sources in machine readable format. what more do you want ?
I'd really would like to make a completely free processor on par with AVR/PIC/ARM/MIPS/etc.
There is already one in the list you give : MIPS is a free core. anyone is allowed to make a MIPS processor without paying royalties. you can only call it a MIPS if it passes the MIPS compliance test suite though. the testing costs money. but there is no licencing fee to use.
There are plenty of cores that have been made open. 8051 for example is open. intel specifically released it years ago ( that's why years ago there was a sudden boom in companies making processors based on the 8051. there were no more royalties to be paid to the instruction set )
Now, the sword also cuts the other way.
Mandating a project is done in kicad or geda in order to release it as 'open' will turn a lot of eagle users away. It will also turn a lot of other tool users away.
Telling someone he can't use state of the art when doing a design and blocking him to use pen and paper will have a very simply reaction : f-you.
It could be even worse : instigate a rule like "you can only make open sauce stuff if you are using open sauce software on open sauce os's": boom you just killed of 90% of the open hardware makers. your whole ecosystem will come crashing down.
i am willing to give you my design for free. asking me to learn a different os, toolchain and imposing all kinds of other restrictions that are a burden to me is simply counterproductive for me. I won't bother, so you won't get my designs.