Slashdot Mirror

It's really time for people to be using and promoting Open Hardware. With projects like Open Hardware and Open Cores available, why would anyone ever use hardware that works against their own best interest?

OpenCores has a System-on-a-Chip (SoC) called the OpenRisc 1200 that runs Linux and uClinux. It was demoed in December at the Freedom Technology Center.

Open Hardware Project
Enjoy. Most of it's still rather raw, and most of it's based off m68k, so don't expect to run "real" linux on it (uClinux is often the objective though).

Wow. IMO, that article deserves to be published in EVERY newspaper across the US.

The internet IMHO is really one of the greatest wonders of mankind, but after skimming that, plus reading the preceeding Matt Groening interview, and the recent Lexmark toner cartridge post, I finally am persuaded that "the industry" at large plays a huge role in stifling the exchange of information and ideas. The 'net allows anyone with access to it to be like a "vendor" to the world, yet I think we have yet to see the net's full potential -- but that potential won't be realized with companies that are operating under their old business models.
As open software has shown, The People are capable innovators. Now I think there are at least two roadblocks. The first one is the ISPs (potentially) because they could in principle be mandated to regulate user content. But then users would find another, perhaps slower, way to get in touch (like networking home satellite dishes). The second is the lack of open hardware (example: last updated 2000). Of course, government and industry *could* help enable options, but they always want something in return.
So I will make my contribution of EFF soon, just not directly by credit card for fear of being tracked by the government.

Dear Moderators: I know this post has some generalizations because it's about my being persuaded, so please, I would rather you ignore my post than mod it down.

" Open Hardware is engineers sharing their designs with each other through the disclosure of their schematics and software systems used on their designs. Do you remember the time when you purchased a circuit board, or computer, and the schematics came with it? I do..."

It seems that there is a lot of electricity in India :-)

However, I am not at ease with all that Simputer stuff. There is much hype, but what's behind?

It looks too closed to succeed. You have to licence a 'design' which is not much more than an Arm-chip Application Note. All seems one-way (there seems to be no forum, no call for participation, just a couple of guys trying to exploit the (nice) idea of 'a computer for the poor', no SourceForge community, nand OpenHardware one or the likes. If you look at the Google/Open_Source/Simputer directory, it is just hype, there is no forum, no CVS repository.
When you look at Simputer.org, there is no activity (the pages are ages old) and it links you to similarily dead 'commercial' pages (where people don't answer when you ask for information).

Why not just start from a LART or one of the existing LinuxDevices?

Don't get me wrong. I'd be pleased to see a Simputer succeeds, but when you start by asking money for a 'class-room design' with no community support, I am not sure that 'a computer for the poor' is more than an empty dream.

I think that the current best solution is probably not to have extra-long video cables to the basement.

Try getting a PC/104 or other sort of single-board computer from a place like EMJ Embedded. You should be able to find one that's small enough to fit in a small box, inexpensive, and beefy enough to run Linux. And then put a nice LCD screen and whatever perepherals you want with it.

The people at OpenHardware have some stuff in the works that would be cheaper than any of the single-board computers -- Like the EZ328LCD Terminal, except that you'd end up building it yourself.

This will be more light switch box sized and cheaper than the flat panel computers from ZF Micro Devices, which is also an option already mentioned.

In any case, you can then just string power and ethernet and run things remotely. This works especially well if there is a X server that will work with your display.

http://www.openhardware.net

http://www.openhardware.org

Why people can't first research then do any statements?