Hello,
Firstly, I would like to make clear that I am a huge fan of the Raspberry Pi and I cannot wait to pick one (or three!) up for myself. However, can we just set the record straight: it is not open source hardware — the schematics and/or Gerber files etc. are not provided and made available under a suitably liberal licence, i.e. as per:
http://www.opensource.org/osd.html
It runs open source software, but then so can an Apple laptop and an IBM mainframe. Please cease referring to this as open source hardware, which is something quite different. For further clarity, see:
http://freedomdefined.org/OSHW#Open_Source_Hardware_.28OSHW.29_Definition_1.0
and:
http://wiki.openhardware.org/Project:Certified_Open_Hardware_License_Approval_Process
This is not to downplay the RP which is an incredible achievement, and 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.
Regards,
Andrew
