Not Open Source Hardware.

Cabe,

You've completely missed the point of open source. It's not about what you or I think anyone might want to do, or about our notions of what is and isn't economically viable. The fact is that the term "open source hardware" means something very specific and given where we are on the adoption curve, that tons of the stuff is out there and well known definitions exist, there is no reasonable excuse for bending that defition so far from its intended, and widely accepted, meaning.

I also hear the point about the Broadcom SoC, however, if this were an open source design I could rip that out and replace it with another piece of silicon. Whether or not this would be economically viable, or the RP Foundation or Broadcom would be pleased, would be neither here nor there: with an open source hardware design I would be free to do as I please.

Regards,

Andrew

I agree with your points that it is important not to let the term loose its meaning.  You mentioned that:

having met David and Liz last year and discussed this with them I have a little insight into perhaps why it is, for now at least, a proprietary (closed) hardware design.

Do you mean that this would preclude the schematic and layout from being released?  I know there is some trickiness with the closed nature of the SoC, but I wouldn't have thought that would prevent the release of the board design files.  Maybe there is some NDA ugliness I don't know about though.

Thanks,

Drew

I agree with your points that it is important not to let the term loose its meaning.  You mentioned that:

having met David and Liz last year and discussed this with them I have a little insight into perhaps why it is, for now at least, a proprietary (closed) hardware design.

Do you mean that this would preclude the schematic and layout from being released?  I know there is some trickiness with the closed nature of the SoC, but I wouldn't have thought that would prevent the release of the board design files.  Maybe there is some NDA ugliness I don't know about though.

Thanks,

Drew

The impression I got was that they had a lot to think about and, at that point, open sourcing the hardware design was not on the top of the list of their priorities. Which is completely understandable and I'd much rather we had the Raspberry Pi than did not!

I also suspected that they felt the need to tread carefully in terms of establishing a sustainable foundation, that will be around for the long haul and that is able to engage in advocacy and to evolve the designs etc. So, as well as wanting to focus on getting the thing out there, they may be looking to recoup a certain amount of investment before opening up the design. This is just a guess, and I'm not saying that this would not be possible with a design that is open from the outset (as the vast majority of OSHW is).

Again and just to be clear: the above is simply the impression that I got — I cannot speak for them.

Regards,

Andrew

Thanks for the insight, and I understand you don't speak for them. 

It seems that open source hardware often lags in adoption behind open source software.  So maybe once these tasty little Linux machines get into folks' hands, the openness on the hardware side will improve, too.  I'm blown away by HDMI and 1080p at such a low price point, but I suppose there is a price to pay in terms of openness for the SoC's awesome performance.

I  would just say, we should forget about that being open source which is not really as of now, and look more into its abilities over a 600$ computer.

Potentially good news from Liz at RaspberryPi.org in regards to if releasing the design files:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/723#comment-13576

Not yet, because not all of the chips are available in distribution. We’re working to solve that problem (another thing we’ve been doing this week); once that’s fixed, yes, we’ll be distributing the schematics.

Just read this information on the recently update "RPi Buying Guide" wiki article:

http://elinux.org/RPi_Buying_Guide#Clones_.26_Copies

Clones & Copies

 

The foundation plans to release all the required schematics and plans to reproduce the RPi hardware, so clones and copies will be welcome.

 

However, since the unit is built around the Broadcom SoC, the interested party will require suitable sized orders to obtain them. The foundation were fortunate enough to be supported in this aspect by Broadcom to enable the project to be feasible.

So I think that once those design files are released it could be considered Open Source Hardware.  Of course, as stated, it would require the person looking to clone/modify the design to source the hard-to-get SoC on their own.