>Perhaps an important thing about designing such a soundcard is to show the >world that open source is more than just a few hackers doing some funny >coding. I mean open source is real and many commercial companies just >don't see that. Designing hardware with people all over the world as >volunteers will take the community a step forward I think.
how will it do any more than developing software with people all over the world? hardware costs a truly significant amount to produce and distribute. software costs a more or less insignificant amount to produce and distribute. which one do you think is more likely to be a domain where "developing with people all over the world" actually succeeds? in addition, despite being a true GPL zealot myself, you run the risk of seriously shooting open source in the foot with this type of strategy. its impossible to make money from selling GPL software. even .com millionares sometimes need to make money while writing GPL'ed software, and one of the best ways of doing this comes from selling and/or partnering with h/w. if the h/w is GPL'ed and in free or ultra-low-cost circulation, this option vanishes, leaving only consulting and support as revenue generators. most programmers who are deeply into a project as complex as many audio+MIDI programs are would rather avoid such things (well, this one would, anyway :) audio+MIDI hardware is already essentially a commodity item. i really see very little point in spending time working on developing "open source" versions of existing hardware capabilities when there is all this incredible software (halion, anyone?) that needs writing, and writing soon! --p
