Re: Flame Linus to a crisp!

[Jamie Lokier <jamie@shareable.org>]

John Bradford wrote:
> > If the hardware that comes out of industry won't let you hack, hey you
> > still have basic materials like SiO2 from the real world to make your
> > own.  Tough, but rewarding :)
> 
> We should be doing this _anyway_.
> 
> With open hardware designs, there would be no problem with
> documentation not being available to write drivers.

Open hardware design has a long way to come along, but the real
problem is that making hardware is very expensive - because it is
actually very difficult and depends upon enormous global industries.
Even making a one-off PCB is very expensive compared with buying
commodity hardware that does interesting stuff.

I was looking at various lumps of wood, metal and plastic around my
home and realised that I'd have a hard time making _anything_ that I
use daily, let alone computer hardware.

I'd love to find a cheaper, more accessible way of manufacturing
hardware than is available to individuals at present.

In principle, the industry which can make things could make use of
open source designs, and then sell them to us.  I'm not sure how to
make that come about, or how to make those things readily extendable
by enthusiastic users - to close the loop.

-- Jamie