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Do you hear that hardware manufacturers? People are willing to pay a lot, and you don't have to redesign/upgrade every year, if you make a simple, hackable, usa
by CaptSpify 10y ago
Do you hear that hardware manufacturers? People are willing to pay a lot, and you don't have to redesign/upgrade every year, if you make a simple, hackable, usable system!
I wish more hardware companies thought like this
- h1srf 10y agoThe question is would you buy it at a higher price point, like say $300?
- ocdtrekkie 10y agoYup. There's a lot of products or software I'd pay a lot more for if they were open. But I understand I'm in the extreme minority.
- CaptSpify 10y agoAbsolutely. I actually have 2 >$200 routers that I use at home. I bought them specifically because I could put pfsense on them.
- deelowe 10y agoMost companies don't want to make open/hackable solutions, because it makes the hardware a commodity. After all, they don't make the chips, they probably contract out the PCB design and manufacture or it's at least done via some sort of JDM process. What's left at that point? Brand, mechanical design, and software... There's not a whole lot to differentiate yourself if you let go of the software piece.
- CaptSpify 10y agoI'm guessing these routers are an exception to that rule, but why is that?
- coldtea 10y agoWe only know they "make millions from them" which doesn't say much. Other routers done the bad way might make even more money -- which would easily explain why these are an exception.
- __jal 10y ago> What's left at that point? I'm not sure what motivates you, but making money selling things people want to buy seems to get a lot of people out of bed in the morning.
- revelation 10y agoIf that's true, why do they do such a horrible, useless, terrible job on the software?
- criddell 10y ago> There's not a whole lot to differentiate yourself if you let go of the software piece. And yet it's letting go of the software piece that differentiates the WRT54GL.
- coldtea 10y ago>Do you hear that hardware manufacturers? People are willing to pay a lot, and you don't have to redesign/upgrade every year, if you make a simple, hackable, usable system! That's only half of an argument. Whether "people are willing to pay a lot" for such systems is beside the point to hardware manufactures, if they can make much more by making non simple and no hackable systems they renew each year.
- brudgers 10y agoI suspect that most of the sales tend toward the B2B end of the spectrum. The reasons someone might buy a WRT54GL aren't really that attractive to a significant fraction of consumers. Even for someone like me who is susceptible to those rationales, I'd shop Buffalo. Open, 11N, and comparably priced.