A New Campaign For A Fully Open-Source Computer

[tarceri]

This is long overdue.

To bad it looks like they took a couple of hundred dollars in donations then closed the campaign down before anyone caught onto the scam.

Update: Well most people could spot the scam from a mile away but I guess they closed it before the donations became too big and they got too much unwanted attention.

[droidhacker]

Their "website" looks like a scam. They seriously couldn't be bothered to write ANYTHING up about it? As far as getting a computer working on all open source software, probably the easiest approach would be to hack/re the lower level bootloaders for snapdragon. With those out of the way, you can run basically a whole computer (like an ifc6410) on entirely open source software. Yeah, a few things won't work, but probably not critical stuff, like the built in GPS.

[curaga]

XCore86's included GPU is terrible, as is its open source support. I would even say unichrome is better.

[intellivision]

The issue right now, is software rather then hardware.

Unless they wish to also release VHDL files, which I doubt, this isn't a huge thing really. It's really not about x86, but arm, at 99 USD, you don't have a lot of x86 options. x86 has firmware/microcode issues that would work against their statement.

As for arm, the most open SoC is the Allwinner A10, A20 series and there the only thing left, is lots of man-hours to write/port/clean the drivers. You have a fully opensource platform (sans GPU, which libv is working hard on).

So what exactly are they crowdfunding? Or they just trying to get rich quick over our backs?

There are a few x86 options that are cheap in bulk, the AMD Fusion line and XCore86 however are the only ones that have adequate open source support at a low price point.
The only other option there is VIA, and Unichrome doesn't have the best FOSS support.

[duby229]

the issue is ICs. CPU, GPU, chipset, etc... There is billions of dollars invested in existing platforms, 250 grand isnt even a drop in the bucket.

[Ramiliez]

Looks like scam to me

[Sadhu]

There is also Bunnie's open laptop: http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=3265
It will be ARM SoC based.

[oliver]

The issue right now, is software rather then hardware.

Unless they wish to also release VHDL files, which I doubt, this isn't a huge thing really. It's really not about x86, but arm, at 99 USD, you don't have a lot of x86 options. x86 has firmware/microcode issues that would work against their statement.

As for arm, the most open SoC is the Allwinner A10, A20 series and there the only thing left, is lots of man-hours to write/port/clean the drivers. You have a fully opensource platform (sans GPU, which libv is working hard on).

So what exactly are they crowdfunding? Or they just trying to get rich quick over our backs?

[ssam]

if you like the ideas have a look at freedom box. It has Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee behind it.

[ncopa]

From the article:

Our goal isn?t to change the Internet, our goal is to replace it.

Are their other goals as realistic as that?