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I take your point about RepRap not being a business. Do you still think it's not worth talking about regardless of being a business or not? Last time I looked

I take your point about RepRap not being a business. Do you still think it's not worth talking about regardless of being a business or not? Last time I looked projects like Firefox and Wikipedia weren't businesses and they are still doing a sterling job competing with large enterprises like Microsoft and Britannica.

maxharris 16y ago
I only meant that it's not worth talking about in an economic context. At the rate it's progressing, it's not going to impact global economic stuff anytime soon (say the next five years). I'm way more excited about lower-cost selective laser sintering (SLS) machines. This process yields high-quality (and high resolution) metal parts that most people would want to use in their daily lives. It's also something that we're not going to see out of the RepRap project in its current incarnation. SLS is startup territory. Current machines run something like $100,000, and anyone that figures out how to make this much cheaper without losing quality will do very well!
- theBobMcCormick 16y ago
  IMHO, you're missing the point. The RepRap project might not be economically interesting, but it might put technologies and capabilities into the hands of companies and entrepreneurs who will do economically (and socially, culturally, etc.) interesting things. As a comparison, Linux distributions, Linux kernel development, etc. aren't economically interesting or significant, but nobody in their right mind would claim that Linux hasn't had a huge effect on startups and on the entire tech industry.
  - maxharris 16y ago
    Well, FreeBSD would have fit into the spot Linux took up if the legal matters (USL vs BSDi) involved were just a little different. So I agree with the larger point, which is that something like RepRap (self-replicating, etc.) is interesting. But I'm not convinced that RepRap is that project.
    - theBobMcCormick 16y ago
      That's a good point. There certainly were/are other projects that could have fit into the same nitch Linux ended up filling. But what are the alternatives to RepRap? Makerbot maybe? Any others?
  - evangineer 16y ago
    That's my take. RepRap is enabling interesting activity. It will be great when something better comes along, but there's many people who can get use out of RepRap in the meantime.

maxharris 16y ago

I only meant that it's not worth talking about in an economic context. At the rate it's progressing, it's not going to impact global economic stuff anytime soon (say the next five years). I'm way more excited about lower-cost selective laser sintering (SLS) machines. This process yields high-quality (and high resolution) metal parts that most people would want to use in their daily lives. It's also something that we're not going to see out of the RepRap project in its current incarnation. SLS is startup territory. Current machines run something like $100,000, and anyone that figures out how to make this much cheaper without losing quality will do very well!

theBobMcCormick 16y ago
IMHO, you're missing the point. The RepRap project might not be economically interesting, but it might put technologies and capabilities into the hands of companies and entrepreneurs who will do economically (and socially, culturally, etc.) interesting things. As a comparison, Linux distributions, Linux kernel development, etc. aren't economically interesting or significant, but nobody in their right mind would claim that Linux hasn't had a huge effect on startups and on the entire tech industry.
- maxharris 16y ago
  Well, FreeBSD would have fit into the spot Linux took up if the legal matters (USL vs BSDi) involved were just a little different. So I agree with the larger point, which is that something like RepRap (self-replicating, etc.) is interesting. But I'm not convinced that RepRap is that project.
  - theBobMcCormick 16y ago
    That's a good point. There certainly were/are other projects that could have fit into the same nitch Linux ended up filling. But what are the alternatives to RepRap? Makerbot maybe? Any others?
- evangineer 16y ago
  That's my take. RepRap is enabling interesting activity. It will be great when something better comes along, but there's many people who can get use out of RepRap in the meantime.