Building an Open Source Laptop • Hacker News Board

Re: Building an Open Source Laptop

#51

Post by otoburb » Fri, Jan 10, 2014, 8:33 PM UTC

mds wrote: post #47

MattJ100 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off-topic, but something I learned... I thought surely you meant the "Duracell Bunny", however the Energizer Bunny does indeed exist, and apparently although it's the later of the two, Energizer successfully registered the battery-powered bunny trademark in the US and Canada[1]. Here in the UK I'd say the Duracell bunny is the first to most peoples' minds. Yes, yes, it's Friday! [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dur…

Haha, today I learned the opposite of what you learned. "In Europe & Australia the term "Duracell Bunny" has entered the vernacular as a term for anything that continues indefatigably while in North America the term "Energizer Bunny" has a similar connotation."

Believe it or not I actually hesitated when writing that thinking it was supposed to be Duracell in my mind, but when I said it out loud I was more comfortable with Energizer.

The power of advertising and repeated exposure. It works :(

Re: Building an Open Source Laptop

#52

Post by wyager » Fri, Jan 10, 2014, 9:37 PM UTC

thirdsight wrote: post #16

wyager wrote: post #5

Awesome. I wish he used an open-source circuit design tool, but at the same time, I understand why he didn't. I honestly think that might be one of the biggest impediments to open hardware; open-source circuit design software is not good right now. I try to force myself to use KiCad over EAGLE, but it's such a relative pain in the ass.

They're all a pain the ass. Even commercial stuff such as Proteus and Multisim. Then there's Mentor's offering which is barf . (I did a spot writing some workflow software for an engineering team a few years back).

Honestly, I've always felt that EAGLE was great. They have a severely limited "free" (as in beer) version, and I really prefer that to KiCad.

It doesn't help that KiCad is horrendously broken on OS X, so I have to use it in a VM.

Re: Building an Open Source Laptop

#53

Post by dublinben » Sat, Jan 11, 2014, 9:46 PM UTC

zanny wrote: post #28

hoggle wrote: post #9

Oh my I love this, open source hardware is the future. Come to think of how Red Hat is doing great even though they are an open source company. Why can't this work for hardware as well?

> Why can't this work for hardware as well? I'd be concerned about drafting up blueprints and having them copied by Chinese manufacturers. Though what I'd do is make my first system just standard libre rights on everything, and that should build a platform for me to kickstart / donation fund future design efforts, and when those are done just release those as free as the last without a care if someone dupes the hardw…

I think you're on the right track, because your hardware is going to be ripped off no matter what. It happens to big companies that obfuscate their designs and it happens to open hardware projects too. At least by freely releasing your designs, a legitimate user can manufacture their own parts instead of just the black-market manufacturers.

Re: Building an Open Source Laptop

#54

Post by dublinben » Sat, Jan 11, 2014, 9:47 PM UTC

rch wrote: post #41

zanny wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why can't this work for hardware as well? I'd be concerned about drafting up blueprints and having them copied by Chinese manufacturers. Though what I'd do is make my first system just standard libre rights on everything, and that should build a platform for me to kickstart / donation fund future design efforts, and when those are done just release those as free as the last without a care if someone dupes the hardw…

I'm more concerned that it seems like my only choice is to buy from Chinese manufacturers.

Why? Are American manufacturers any more trustworthy? Most electronics products heavily rely on the Chinese supply chain anyway, regardless of where their final assembly takes place.

Re: Building an Open Source Laptop

#55

Post by rch » Sun, Jan 12, 2014, 1:07 AM UTC

dublinben wrote: post #54

rch wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm more concerned that it seems like my only choice is to buy from Chinese manufacturers.

Why? Are American manufacturers any more trustworthy? Most electronics products heavily rely on the Chinese supply chain anyway, regardless of where their final assembly takes place.

My feelings are more about autonomy and choice for its own sake than trust. In this context though, I'd just want to be sure I'm supporting the efforts of people who are responsible for developing products I actually want.