Open Source Hardware Gets Public Introduction 106
JoeBorn writes "The Sunday New York Times has an article on Neuros video recorder and describes the benefits of open source hardware to its mainstream readership. Can a mainstream audience appreciate that hackability can translate into new features or will it all just seem too geeky? In this case, the Neuros OSD got a YouTube browser. While the details might be lost on the average reader, are they getting the sense that some companies allow users to benefit from other users modifications while others are actively bricking products for applying 3rd party apps? In other words, is openness starting to add value to the brands that support it?"
Re:OpenSparc (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Warranty and expectations of the average consum (Score:3, Informative)
The Neo whatever-its-called as hardware will be able to run OpenMoko-- but it can also run Trolltech's Qtopia [molkentin.de] software, which is further along, development-wise.
As far as Google's Android platform-- it's my understanding that it won't run on the Neo hardware due to some kind of lack of backwards compatibility [benno.id.au] with the ARM processor in the Neo.
Finally, I think there are some parts of neo1973/openmoko that are not fully open-- can't remember, but I think it's the GPS or GSM driver/daemon.
W
Re:Warranty and expectations of the average consum (Score:3, Informative)
So does most closed source software... or did you expect Microsoft to compensate you every time Windows crashes?
Side note: I'm excited about openmoko, the open hardware (and open source software) cell phone. Waiting for the second revision, which will include 802.11.
Yes, I've been keeping an eye on the OpenMoko project for a while, since my experience of devices (phones, routers, PDAs, etc) of the past 5 years or so has been that the first versions always ship with serious bugs and then they are end-of-lifed after only a few months as they are replaced by a new version (with a similar number of serious bugs) - the product life cycle is too short and the firmware never gets stablised. So I've come to the conclusion that I have to be able to fix the bugs myself since the device vendors sure as hell show no sign of doing it.
Unfortunately the OpenMoko project seems to have had a lot of delays (their first "consumer grade" version was supposed to ship for Christmas, but they are going through another hardware revision cycle and from what I understand the firmware is no where near ready for normal users). Also, as tempting as it is to get the GTA02 revision of the FIC1973 phone, I'm still holding out for a version with HSDPA support since I have plenty of experience with GPRS, and frankly it sucks. Also, a smaller case and/or bigger screen would be nice - from photos there seems to be a lot of empty space in the case.
Re:Warranty and expectations of the average consum (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Warranty and expectations of the average consum (Score:3, Informative)
The GSM radio and GPS receiver are covered by NDAs. The GSM radio provides a plain serial interface, so the software side is completely open. The GPS receiver requires some processing to be done on the host processor though, and this requires a binary blob. The binary blob provides an NMEA output though, so everything above it is open.
I understand that these are closed for regulatory reasons (fiddling with the GSM radio would be illegal in many jurisdictions, and ISTR the GPS licences require that there be some "safety" mechanisms built in, such as maximum speed and maximum altitude that the GPS can operate at, because the US government are idiots and are paranoid about people using GPS devices in missiles, etc.)
You can bet that someone will reverse engineer the GPS blob and write an open one before long though (I rather doubt this will make it into the official release though, due to the previously mentioned regulatory problems).
Re:Apple Dig (Score:4, Informative)
1. People were only applying 3rd party firmware because Apple intentionally prevented people from doing all the stuff you usually expect to do on a SmartPhone.
2. Apple knew the firmware would brick the phones - they made a press release saying it would _before_ they released the firmware, yet they did nothing to correct the problem (they could at least have prevented people uploading the new firmware to hacked phones). Read into it what you will, but it looked to me very much like the bricking of the phones was an accidentally-on-purpose thing.
No one has gone after Linksys for a bricked router after trying to apply 3rd party firmware.
To my knowledge, LinkSys have never released a firmware that would brick your router. Sure, you can brick it by applying a broken 3rd party firmware(*) but applying an official LinkSys firmware (even after you've been running a 3rd party one) won't brick it.
(* Actually, it's pretty hard to brick the WRT54GL - the boot loader, which is never replaced by the user firmware, is pretty smart and will let you upload a new firmware even if the one already on the router is completely screwed. So even if you uploaded a compeltely broken 3rd party firmware, you can usually just upload the official LinkSys one again and it'll all start working).
bricking != disabling a hack (Score:3, Informative)