Shulou(Shulou.com)06/02 Report--

Today, I will talk to you about what the open source hardware of Linux is. Many people may not know much about it. In order to make you understand better, the editor has summarized the following for you. I hope you can get something from this article.

Commercial software and free software have been entangled with each other for many years, but the two often misunderstand each other. This is not surprising-for one side, it is business, while the other is just a way of life. However, this misunderstanding can be painful, which is why it is worth the effort to reveal the inside story.

An increasingly common phenomenon: constant experimentation with open source hardware, whether it's Canonical,Jolla,MakePlayLive or other companies. Whether commentators or end users, free software users usually show excessive fanaticism for the release of new hardware platforms, and then wake up because of constant delays until they eventually give up the entire product.

This is a strange circle where no one benefits, and it often breeds mistrust-all because the average Linux user has no idea what's going on behind the news.

Personally, I have limited experience in bringing products to market. But I haven't heard of anyone who can make a breakthrough. Bringing an open source hardware or other product to market is still not only a cruel business, but also a serious disadvantage to newcomers.

Looking for a partner

Both the production and distribution of digital products are controlled by relatively few companies, sometimes requiring months of booking. Profit margins will also be low, so like studios that buy old sitcoms, producers generally want to replicate the success of current best-selling products. As Aaron Seigo told me when talking about his efforts to develop Vivaldi tablets, manufacturers prefer someone else to take the risk of developing a new product.

Not only that, they prefer to work with people with ready-made sales records who are likely to bring long-term customer business.

Moreover, generally speaking, new manufacturers are only concerned about a few thousand products. Chipmakers prefer to work with companies like Apple or Samsung because their orders are likely to be tens of millions.

Faced with this situation, open source hardware makers may find themselves inundated in the list of factories unless they can find second-or third-tier factories that are willing to try to produce new products in small quantities.

They may also be reduced to purchasing finished components and assembling them themselves, as Seigo did when he tried Vivaldi. Or they might be able to do what Canonical did and find partners who are willing to take risks for the industry. And even if they succeed, they are usually several months later than initially naive expectations.

Stumble towards the market

However, finding a manufacturer is only the first hurdle. According to the experience of the raspberry pie project, even if open source hardware makers only want to run free software on their products, manufacturers are likely to insist on using proprietary firmware or drivers in the name of protecting trade secrets.

This is bound to attract criticism from potential users, but open source hardware makers have no choice but to compromise their vision. Looking for other manufacturers won't solve the problem either, in part because it means more delays, but more because there is no hardware that is completely free of licensing fees. Industry giants like Samsung have no interest in free hardware, and as newcomers, open source hardware makers have no influence to ask for anything.

What's more, even if there is free hardware, manufacturers can't guarantee that it will be used in the next batch of production. Manufacturers will easily find that they have to fight exactly the same battle every time they need to produce.

That's not enough. By this time, open source hardware makers may have spent 6-12 months haggling. When the opportunity finally comes, the industry standards have changed, so they may have to start all over again in order to upgrade the product specifications.

A short and brutal shelf life

Despite so many difficulties, some open hardware has finally been launched. Remember the challenge of finding a manufacturer? There will be the same problem for distributors-not just once, but in every region.

In general, distributors are as conservative as generators and are cautious about dealing with new people or ideas. Even if they agree to put a product on the shelves, they can easily decide not to encourage their sales representatives to promote it, which means the product will be very efficient in a few months' time.

Of course, online sales are also possible. But at the same time, the hardware still needs to be stored somewhere, which also increases the cost. On-demand production, if possible, will be very expensive, and unassembled components need to be stored.

Measure the whole strange thing.

I only sketched it out here, but anyone who has ever been involved in manufacturing will agree with what I describe as an industry standard. To make matters worse, open source hardware makers usually wake up only after they have experienced it. Inevitably, they will also make mistakes, resulting in more delays.

But the point is, once you understand the whole process, your reaction to the news of experimenting with another open source hardware will change. This process means that unless a company is in strict secrecy mode, the announcement that the product will be released within six months will soon prove to be out of date speculation. It's likely to be 12-18 months, and facing the difficulties mentioned earlier is likely to mean that the product will never really be released.

For example, as I wrote, people are waiting for the first generation of Steam Machines, a Linux-based game console. They believe that Steam Machines can revolutionize Linux and games.

As a market segment, Steam Machines may have an advantage over other new products because the developers at least have experience in developing software products. However, a whole year later, Steam Machines still has only prototypes, and it may not be available until mid-2015. In the face of the actual situation of hardware production, even half of them are very lucky to see the sun. In fact, it may be more practical to release 2-4.

I didn't take individual effort into account in making this prediction. However, my understanding of hardware production is more reliable than predictions such as the golden age of Linux and games. I'll be happy if I'm wrong, but the truth won't change: it's not so many Linux-related hardware products that fail, but those that are short-lived but successful.

After reading the above, do you have any further understanding of Linux's open source hardware? If you want to know more knowledge or related content, please follow the industry information channel, thank you for your support.

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