The Open Source Laptop and the Golden Age of Open Hardware 93
An anonymous reader writes to this short feature featuring "Andrew 'Bunnie' Huang on why he decided to build an open source laptop, how the slowing of Moore's Law is making it easier for individuals and small outfits to compete against major corporations in the computer hardware market and what hobbyist hardware makers in the U.S. could learn from China's Shanzhai, famed for their cheap clones of the iPhone and other popular handsets."
Re:Slowing?! (Score:5, Insightful)
I snicker at the term "Moor's law" myself....
It's really more of a guideline and an old adage which is generally true but it is far from a "law".
Re:I'd love to build laptops (Score:5, Insightful)
Those do exist. So-called "white box" laptops. My very limited experience with them is that getting your Windows install to play nice is a very similar experience to getting Linux to play nice with an off-brand laptop... it can be very time consuming, so if you value your time you just pay for some company to do it for you. And at the low end, you don't save any money because the components are largely part of the mainboard on crappy laptops. Thin-n-light like the Air is not possible at all.
Shanzhai? No (Score:5, Insightful)
What does "could learn from China's Shanzhai" mean? Shanzhai electronics is crap. No, really, it is. Does it mean "use cheap garbage components that will fail 0-6 months after sale, and close up the company so we don't have to provide refunds"? Not that China's consumer protection laws mean a damn, anyway.
The whole article stinks of "d00d this is totally kewl, we should totally make, you know, a laptop. Then add shanzhai, then add bookbinding, then add "guerrilla hardware". WTF does guerrilla hardware even mean? This has more nonsense buzzwords than the latest corporate marketing press release.
Re:I'd love to build laptops (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh but they do sell the individual parts. Of course they are "replacement" parts and they are extremely expensive compared to just buying a whole new laptop. This doesn't stop you from making modifications though. Changing the memory and hard drive is easy and I've changed CPU's and altered wireless adapters too. Laptops are somewhat upgradeable, sometimes anyway.
What you *really* want is a standard "form factor" for the parts that fit in standard laptop cases. Then you could buy a gutless case and buy parts to build a full machine from there. However, don't hold your breath. The problem for manufacturers is that they are trying to cram as much stuff into your latest laptop as cheaply as possible, which leads to a single "mother" board that has the CPU and display adapter components built on. It needs to all survive at least some rough handling. All this requires complex engineering and integration testing and many manufacturers don't like to share.
So, where I would applaud an effort to make laptops more generic, I don't think you are going to get a major manufacture to offer up their designs or sell parts for this. What you are going to need is a base platform design for the case, while at the same time providing a set of "guts" (Processing, display, Keyboard, wireless) which are all available and free, pretty much all ready at the same time. Until then, keep wishing..
Who are they targeting? (Score:4, Insightful)
So this open source laptop has the specs of a very low end Chromebook. Making it useful to who? also it had better sell for $99.00 because the $199 chomebooks out there are already faster and far better built.
Honestly, what is their point? Making an open source very very low quality laptop is a waste of time.
Re:Who are they targeting? (Score:4, Insightful)
Honestly, what is their point? Making an open source very very low quality laptop is a waste of time.
Many things are a waste of time. Watching TV is a waste of time. Going to the theatre is a waste of time. Reading a book is a waste of time. Good heavens, reading Slashdot is a waste of time!
Or perhaps not. If it's what you want to do, then, as far as you are concerned, it's not a waste of time. Building an "open source" laptop is no more a waste of time than Linus's initial interest in producing a new (open source) kernel.
I'm not an engineer, but I (for one) am interested in how this project/hobby works out. Certainly I think "open source" hardware is something to be encouraged (like "open source" or "free" (libre) software).
As to usefulness, who, in 1991, thought a new "open source" kernel would be of any use? Who thinks so now? (Answer - me, for one! I'm typing this in Firefox running under LMDE XFCE!)
I'll consider buying one if it becomes commercially available.