open source hardware has a lot of potential
this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2023
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Especially when home manufacturing becomes more of a thing.
I mean home manufacturing is cool and all, but in the short term open source hardware has the potential to create a lot more competition in traditional manufacturing. Most big tech rely on IP nowadays, without it there would be more competitors to drive prices down and increase supply. Home manufacturing is more in the far future IMO
I have been watching system76 from afar for a long time and everytime I upgrade I look at their systems but I was never confident of local support. I bought an equivalent to one of their early laptops from a local company once. I think it is great that they are bringing more design in-house as rebadging generic systems limited their documentation and repairability.
While competition is good I can't look past Framework at the moment. They shipped to me direct from Taiwan as fast as a local delivery and I know I can repair the system so it removes all the concerns I had about dealing with a niche foreign company. I see no value in PopOS or the other user space stuff from system76. Open firmware is an advantage but I think framework will get there eventually. As much as I respect system76s mission I think their business model is dubious. They should have gone in-house open hardware earlier and I think the userspace stuff is a pointless distraction.
That's your opinion and that's fine. For me, open hardware + hot swappable mechanical keyboard + trackpoint + designed to be repaired + the general opennes are the reasons why Virgo comes to my desk.
Framework is good for many and thanks to LTT will sell more units but I've been only with Thinkpads since 2008 so Coreboot + trackpoint are must-haves for me.
EDIT: I'm like 90% sure I'm remembering Purism here, not System 76.
I want them to succeed (and open source hardware in general), but I got burnt by one of their early ones. A complete lemon of a laptop. I've had better build quality out of Acer.
I was pleasantly surprised by my OG Framework DIY laptop though. They're doing great work.
Wife got one a few years ago that had multiple hardware issues that took a ridiculous amount of back and forth to get them to fix . Talking months of effort.
That's based. I might give PopOS a try when their new DE reaches feature completion (since they don't sell their laptops in my country unfortunately)
That's awesome! Next laptop decided on.