Comments on: RIP CE http://bugblogger.com/rip-ce-255/ The Bug Labs blog Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:12:02 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Kinguin7 http://bugblogger.com/rip-ce-255/comment-page-1/#comment-873 Kinguin7 Thu, 13 Nov 2008 03:23:50 +0000 http://bugblogger.com/?p=255#comment-873 i think that the truth lies somewhere in between. i think that open source is a very useful tool, in fact i am writing this from a computer running a modified version of debian linux. but at the same time, i also make use of closed source software, such as the proprietary Nvidia driver in my linux system (though you can argue that this would be unnecessary if Nvidia made their hardware specifications public). low level hardware interfaces seem to require a dedicated team of professionals more than anything else. secondly, even if making the entire project open source would have brought the dash to market faster and as a superior product, would they want to? if they had, another company could easily copy it, not exactly the greatest business model. business can work with open source, but not necessarily in all aspects. i think that the truth lies somewhere in between. i think that open source is a very useful tool, in fact i am writing this from a computer running a modified version of debian linux. but at the same time, i also make use of closed source software, such as the proprietary Nvidia driver in my linux system (though you can argue that this would be unnecessary if Nvidia made their hardware specifications public). low level hardware interfaces seem to require a dedicated team of professionals more than anything else.

secondly, even if making the entire project open source would have brought the dash to market faster and as a superior product, would they want to? if they had, another company could easily copy it, not exactly the greatest business model. business can work with open source, but not necessarily in all aspects.

]]> By: Peter Semmelhack http://bugblogger.com/rip-ce-255/comment-page-1/#comment-859 Peter Semmelhack Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:09:40 +0000 http://bugblogger.com/?p=255#comment-859 Anonymous Coward - thanks for the comment. It would definitely be naive if you thought that the ways things are are the ways things will remain. My whole point is it can and will change. I'm not suggesting it will suddenly get easy. Open source software is not easy. But instead of separate teams of corporate engineers working in secret, we will start to see a global community of engineers working on every aspect of hardware IP in the open. Twenty years ago it would not have been surprising to hear your comment made about operating systems. Anonymous Coward – thanks for the comment. It would definitely be naive if you thought that the ways things are are the ways things will remain. My whole point is it can and will change. I’m not suggesting it will suddenly get easy. Open source software is not easy. But instead of separate teams of corporate engineers working in secret, we will start to see a global community of engineers working on every aspect of hardware IP in the open. Twenty years ago it would not have been surprising to hear your comment made about operating systems.

]]> By: Anonymous Coward http://bugblogger.com/rip-ce-255/comment-page-1/#comment-851 Anonymous Coward Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:30:13 +0000 http://bugblogger.com/?p=255#comment-851 "Imagine if Dash could have built its product using both open source software AND hardware IP. I guarantee they could have brought it to market faster and at a fraction of the cost." Open source software is not the panacea that everyone makes it out to be. All too often it is in the process of maturing - it's in flux and/or its development schedule is not congruent with the needs of a product life cycle. The real funny part of your assumption is that hardware IP can be serviced by open-source software. It takes a wealth of time and resources to get there - hardware bring up,m board spins, 3rd party issues, driver support, and testing are just some of the hurdles. If you are making the next great laptop, it probably not hard. If you are making a new device that does something where there is no reference platform or blueprint already in existence, the job just got hard - real hard (think bootloader, kernel, drivers, app abstraction layer to begin with). And no matter how hard you try, throwing apt-get onto your new device does not help with low level crappola. All in all - that's a friggin' naive statement to make. “Imagine if Dash could have built its product using both open
source software AND hardware IP. I guarantee they could have
brought it to market faster and at a fraction of the cost.”

Open source software is not the panacea that everyone makes it out to be. All too often it is in the process of maturing – it’s in flux and/or its development schedule is not congruent with the needs of a product life cycle.

The real funny part of your assumption is that hardware IP can be serviced by open-source software. It takes a wealth of time and resources to get there – hardware bring up,m board spins, 3rd party issues, driver support, and testing are just some of the hurdles. If you are making the next great laptop, it probably not hard. If you are making a new device that does something where there is no reference platform or blueprint already in existence, the job just got hard – real hard (think bootloader, kernel, drivers, app abstraction layer to begin with). And no matter how hard you try, throwing apt-get onto your new device does not help with low level crappola.

All in all – that’s a friggin’ naive statement to make.

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