Fully Open POWER System Only Raises 12% Of Goal, Extends Funding Another 30 Days

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Fully Open POWER System Only Raises 12% Of Goal, Extends Funding Another 30 Days

If you have been interested in the Talos Secure Workstation as a fully open system down to the firmware and based upon the POWER8 architecture but have been put off by the $3,700+ USD price simply to obtain the motherboard, they have extended their crowdfunding campaign by another thirty days with only having hit 12% of their goal...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=TALOS-12p-30-More-Days

[blacknova]

I'm not surprised. While I understand that development of such board cost money, I'm not willing to pay ~5 grand for computer system. It's usefullness is not THAT great.

[VinceLe]

I went down the opposite path: eoma68. Even with its shortcomings, at least I can afford one...

[Expectations]

It`s just too expensive to justify buying for most people. Another 30 days won't change that, unfortunately.

[cjcox]

IBM market hype. Just when you purchase the POWER8 the POWER9 will be out and IBM will deprecate all systems using POWER8. Been there, done that.

[Herem]

So they managed to raise 12% in 2 months. Call me a pessimist but something tells me another 30 days isn't quite going to cut it.

[crystall]

IBM market hype. Just when you purchase the POWER8 the POWER9 will be out and IBM will deprecate all systems using POWER8. Been there, done that.

This isn't about hype; I've been following the project and it has some remarkable technical merits. It isn't just a POWER8 motherboard with libre firmware; it's a remarkably sophisticate design made with security and user control in mind. The main issue with the project is the price is really daunting, though I understand why that is: it's a remarkable piece of engineering.

My gut feeling tells me that their campaign isn't just for raising money directly but also to raise awareness of their concept, in the hope of getting real funding from an investor.

[boltronics]

I went down the opposite path: eoma68. Even with its shortcomings, at least I can aford one...

Same. That's both my next desktop and laptop, although it won't be my primary desktop until much more powerful versions come out. I don't even like the current EOMA68 laptop - too big for my use case (and the resolution is much too low for my liking), but I love the concept and brought all the gear to tinker and support the project.

Really, I don't need the most sophisticated piece of free hardware - but ideally something reasonably modern like a current i5 but 100% free software compatible. It doesn't have to play the latest AAA games for what I'd use it for (which are proprietary anyway). Basically just something powerful enough to open 50 browser tabs, Emacs, be able to compile something in the background, and not have everything completely grind to a halt while doing so.

[Serafean]

Why isn't anybody talking about this in linux world?

Because SPC is in the gstreamer-plugins-bad package, which per gstreamer docs should not be installed by default (known bad code quality). -> Distro's fault.

And many people are : https://lwn.net/Articles/708196/

[Adarion]

I guess the Talos project needs more press coverage (and maybe more "mainstream") and the other thing is of course the price. Roughly 48 h before funding ended I looked up the project cause I remembered it and was shocked that it was just at ~10% funding. But I had known of that project and more or less accidentally remembered it.
Sadly, I still don't have the 4000 USD at least and I guess many people, too. Even if I spent those 10 USD (which I probably will) it will be just a drop on the hot stone. And it needs many more drops.
I think many people are interested in something like this, but at the price (even though it's likely a justified price - high performance, small number of boards) it's out of reach for many.