The Open Source Laptop and the Golden Age of Open Hardware

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."

Comments

I'd love to build laptops

[Anonymous Coward]

Companies should sell laptop shells and let us buy the parts individually, just like a desktop computer.

Re:I'd love to build laptops

[MightyYar]

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.

Re:I'd love to build laptops

[bobbied]

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..

Re:I'd love to build laptops

[Mashdar]

I even tell people these days that Linux is easier to install than Windows. While very new hardware can still be problematic (Llano drivers a few years ago come to mind), in general the installation process is:
1) Hit next several times.
2) Enter a user name and password.
3) Everything works.

Hunting for drivers on Windows, especially for legacy devices, hurts my brain. When I plug my 15 year old webcam into a Mint box it just works. So in that respect I agree with GP :)

Re:I'd love to build laptops

[Lumpy]

So you compare a current Linux distro to a horribly out of date XP install? Try windows 7 on your craptop and tell us again how everything went perfect...

Re:I'd love to build laptops

[Miamicanes]

> you forgot to select encrypt harddrive

Naw, if somebody steals my laptop, I *want* them to be able to casually log in and use it, so I can ssh into the box and remotely pwn them in every conceivable way, getting way more fun and value out of the laptop than I probably would have gotten from using it myself. Drive encryption keeps your data more secure, but maximizes the likelihood that you'll never see the laptop again or get any post-theft entertainment value from it. When life gives you lemons, make a honeypot ;-)

Slowing?!

[SigmundFloyd]

What's with this "slowing of Moore's law" nonsense?

That supposed "law" is either true or false, there's no speed change about it.

Re:Slowing?!

[bobbied]

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:Slowing?!

[DougOtto]

Sort of like the pirate code.

Re:Slowing?!

[DNS-and-BIND]

What does that even mean, and how did this totally unrelated topic somehow come up? Are we just spewing stream-of-consciousness bullshit in public now?

Shanzhai? No

[DNS-and-BIND]

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.

Cortex A9

[Anonymous Coward]

Performance increases have indeed been quite slow in the x86 space for the past few years, but this is ARM based and there are still dramatic performance increases showing up regularly in that space. This is based on a quad Cortex A9 design (similar to the first-gen Nexus 7), and the current Cortex A15 core is roughly twice as fast. Whereas in the same timeframe Intel has managed only a ~20% performance increase, though they have been focusing more on power consumption than performance.

Yes, learn from shanzhai manufacturers

[poity]

Go ahead and make a 14" form factor laptop, and put in a 12" 800x600 screen (blacken the surrounding bezel so it doesn't look like ass), install a VIA board and cpu and modify the BIOS so that it reports an i5, while you're in there also make it report 8GB RAM instead of the 2GB that's actually in there, then solder a 64GB USB drive inside because, face it, no customer who cheaps out this much actually uses the 500GB advertised capacity anyway. And if the entire thing feels too good in your hand, put in some metal weights in the extra space you have in there to make it more realistic, because quality things have a certain density, and you also don't want to draw suspicions for being the lightest 14" i5 laptop in the world. Well, at least not until that injection mold for the Sony replica is finished. And of course never sign contracts or NDAs, who leaves paper trails for these things?

Who are they targeting?

[Lumpy]

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?

[serviscope_minor]

Honestly, what is their point?

What is it with the slashdotters who produce nothing yet live to shit on everyone's parade.

It's useful for people who want a fully open source laptop.

Why is that useful?

Well, for a start the designs are online. You can buy the reference build and start hacking on the software while at the same time making a modified design to suit your own needs.

Oh and you don't have to worry about venduh support for drivers.

If you want a laptop with better sensors (GPS, full 6DOF, IMU, etc) you can stick them in.

Basically if you have needs that aren't met by standard hardware (duh).

I have trouble believing that your imagination is so limited that you really can't possibly imagine the use of such a device.

because the $199 chomebooks out there are already faster and far better built.

How many FPGAs and GPIO pins does that chromebook have? A clue: none.

Re:Who are they targeting?

[Sesostris III]

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.