'open source spirit' for hardware?

[jeskel]

It might seem a very weird question but I was wondering if something like the open source spirit in the world of coding had its equivalent in the hardware universe. I obviously don't ask if you can get procs that you can play with constitutive elements or if you can get some hardware for free (off course not), I am rather interested by the philosophical aspect of the question. Are they some alternatives to big corporations?

[jeskel]

taken from that thread: http://www.codingforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=30444
Originally posted by oracleguy
Additionally, what is the school going to do with all those copies of Windows that comes on all the PCs they buy? They can't sell it since tax payer money was used to purchase it.
In a way, I guess that answer my question...

[raf]

or if you can get some hardware for free (off course not)
Sure. I've got a slow, old PI (100 mHz) i'm willing to donate. And i believe there are some floppy's lying around here i would be willing to throw at whoever asks them.

There are a lotts of free hardware deals. The previous firm i worked (governemental organisation) even payd a 'specialised firm' about 100 euro/removed PC so they would even save money if they just gave them away to schools or so (which hapens quite a lott).
It should be no problem at all getting a free machine/monitor/keybord/mous
(unless you're picky)

And besides, the hardware doesn't need to be fysically at your home. Krychek offers free hosting at ithium.net if you have a worthwile project. In a sense, that is freely giving you storage, processing and bandwidth. The same goes for those research-projects where you can offer your CPU to perform some of their calculaions when your system has some free resources.

[jeskel]

Originally posted by raf

And besides, the hardware doesn't need to be fysically at your home. Krychek offers free hosting at ithium.net if you have a worthwile project. In a sense, that is freely giving you storage, processing and bandwidth. The same goes for those research-projects where you can offer your CPU to perform some of their calculaions when your system has some free resources.
quite right... I did not see it that way! :thumbsup:

However I have the feeling that in people's mind IE is separated from Mozilla, Windows OS from Linux, ASP from PHP, Access from MySql (etc...) in terms of 'ethical' (so to speak) and 'philosophical' (again so to speak) approaches. That's how I perceive things actually (but I might be wrong...). I was wondering if in terms of hardware there was also such a distinction.

[sage45]

Not so much so...

In the hardware world, most things are adminstrated by a standards organisation... The set down the industry standards and the hardware manufacturers adhere to these standards or they are out of compliance and proprietary...

This was really prevelant when IBM was the major computer hardware supplier... After they attempted to introduce a new standard that was not backwards compatible with the existing standard, a group of nine majory component manufacturers got together and formed the ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) group... From this group sprang for the ISA, EISA, VESA and PCI bus standards... When it comes to processors, you are talking about chipset and memory standards that are adhered to and manufactured to support the processor as opposed to the opposite...

-sage-

[jeskel]

That's what I expected actually... But sometimes there are hidden things that only a few knows ;)

Thanx for your answers guys.

[Roy Sinclair]

Actually there is an open source hardware movement too.

http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,61631,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1

[jeskel]

Originally posted by Roy Sinclair
Actually there is an open source hardware movement too.

http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,61631,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1
:thumbsup: great link :thumbsup: