Open Graphics

Posted Sep 1, 2005 15:59 UTC (Thu) by rknop (guest, #66) [Link]

We didn't have free/open _software_ when RMS started GNU project. (ok, we did but...) Is this a good time to start on free/open _hardware_?

The comparison isn't really 1:1, since you can copy a piece of software without in any way degrading the copy of the person you're copying from. This is obviously not true with hardware. (At least until the nanotech "hardware printers" get working.)

However, there really ought to be open specs and open standards. This has been the de facto case in the past. The problem is that it takes a fair centralization of effort to make hardware that is used by any reasonable fraction of the people out there. Once you have that centralization of effort, you probably have a corporation whose legal and marketing divisions realize that they might be able to profit from lock-in, and encourage proprietary, closed specs.

With software, long-haired birkenstock-wearing geeks working either at companies who want software support, or in their parents' garage, are able to produce things that can get used-- largely because design is mainly what needs to be done, there's no physical construction. That means that a grassroots effort such as Stallman started is possible, and now many people work using 100% free software. (I'm almost there, but not quite. I have to admit to occasionally using IDL, to using Acroread, and to *sometimes* using a binary modem driver on a laptop. Oh, and I have an X-box, but I made peace with the idea that if Microsoft were just a games company, they'd be less of a threat to my work. Call me a rationalizer if you will.)

-Rob