> So I was wondering what it is that makes software projects different > than hardware projects cost-wise, and whether the differences could be > accounted for. > If you think about it, software projects aren't actually free. Someone's > got to pay for the computing equipment and the Internet connections that > are needed in order to make software a reality.But you have software > volunteers regardless, and in many cases no price is put on the actual > software product. On the contrary, I don't think that anyone would give > away the actual hardware that they've built, and it would even sound > absurd to ask someone to do so. And I'm not saying that this is not > logical or that it's bad in any way, but I keep wondering. > > If these assumptions are not wrong, and based on what I've read so far, > I think that this is an issue of the difference of the perceived costs > between hardware and software. In the case of software, non-material > incentives (experience gain, collaboration, sense of freedom, pure > creative joy) would outweigh the development cost for a volunteer. So, > the first free software communities were based on these incentives.But > for a hardware developer, maybe the material costs clearly outweigh such > non-material incentives. I'm not a hardware developer myself (at least > not yet), that's another reason why your opinions could be of great help > to me.
Perhaps it helps to differentiate between Design of a Product and the Product itself. With Software the Design of a Product is the Source Code. And the Product is the Binary. With Hardware the Design are the Schematics, PCB Layouts, FPGA code, BOM,.. And the Product is something that you can hold in your hands. Open Hardware and Open Source Software publish their Designs for free on the Internet. The difference lies with the product. The Software Product is just a compiler run away from the open source. So there is basically no cost. A build server will do that for you all the time, so no big deal here. On the Hardware side you need not only the parts (resistors, capacitors, the ICs,..) but also the PCB. For the PCB you have 2 options. 1) produce it yourself. Then you only need to by the copper plated FR4 and need some hours to do it. 2) let it produce. Then you have to pay for the PCB and they are not cheap. Just google for a PCB Company and they have the prices on their homepage. But then you still need to put it all together. Therefore you need soldering tools. And don't think of those cheap solder irons. We want to do SMD and BGA right ? If you have come so far then in reality the board will not work. Either you have a bug in the design or because of being a human you messed something up by producing the board. So now you throw in your Multimeter, the Oscilloscope the Logic analyzer(compare the prizes of those to the free GDB) and hopefully with some experience you can figure out the problem. If you messed it up then hopefully you did not kill the expensive FPGA. But you are pretty fine you can fix it and celebrate your working board. If the debugging shows that your design was faulty. Then throw away the board. say goodbye to all the expenses for the PCB,.. and start all over again. I think the high cost for Tools reduces the amount of people doing open Hardware development greatly. That is very sad. The cost associated with every peace produced reduces the will to give it away for free. Take a look at http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/ I have no relation to them and don't want to advertise. But they offer you money if they may produce your design for others. There are several Ideas around. But up to now nobody found a solution for the problems of costs for tooling and cost of production. Best Regards Lars _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [email protected] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
