Comment Re:Like "Make", but dumber (Score 1) 103
Unfortunately it is a very common misconception that Open Hardware should be if not "free as in beer", then at least as cheap as possible. But even beer exists in "free as in speech" variant (http://freebeer.org/) and I do not think it is extremely cheap.
I believe that writing about "How to Make Really Crappy Lenses with a 3D Printer" is similar to advising readers to forget the normal GNU/Linux they run on their computers and make some DIY OS and run it on the 8-bit microprocessor. Of course, such DIY projects have right to exist, but I'm afraid that making people to associate _all_ the OH with just some cheap replacement of the Real Proprietary Stuff may be very harmful to the Open Hardware itself.
Freedom of the hardware devices has real value and can pay for itself. The fact that the FOSS (both software and devices that use it) is now mainstream (thanks, Bruce!) makes more people to be "spoiled" by such freedom and expect it from the hardware they are paying for. And that keeps us in business of developing (and selling) expensive (but Free) Open Hardware products for 10 years already.
I believe that writing about "How to Make Really Crappy Lenses with a 3D Printer" is similar to advising readers to forget the normal GNU/Linux they run on their computers and make some DIY OS and run it on the 8-bit microprocessor. Of course, such DIY projects have right to exist, but I'm afraid that making people to associate _all_ the OH with just some cheap replacement of the Real Proprietary Stuff may be very harmful to the Open Hardware itself.
Freedom of the hardware devices has real value and can pay for itself. The fact that the FOSS (both software and devices that use it) is now mainstream (thanks, Bruce!) makes more people to be "spoiled" by such freedom and expect it from the hardware they are paying for. And that keeps us in business of developing (and selling) expensive (but Free) Open Hardware products for 10 years already.