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As open source options mature & become more plentiful, it simply becomes more 'painful' for companies to ignore / go a closed sourced route. Closed source = ex
by RetroTechie 3y ago
As open source options mature & become more plentiful, it simply becomes more 'painful' for companies to ignore / go a closed sourced route.
Closed source = extra cost, licensing red tape & so on. However small, it's a bother.
Need an OS? Grab open source one. Want that + 'secret sauce'? Grab BSD flavour OS & add your secret sauce. Want OS with custom user interface? Grab open source OS & add custom UI shell.
Going closed source for anything where open source does the job, just means extra development effort, or paying 3rd party $$ while (often) not necessary. And eg. $0.05 royalties / device matters when it's a part with $3 production cost.
On the hardware side this is a much slower moving train. But same principle.
- OhMeadhbh 3y agoHave you ever used the rocket core generator? There's a reason people pay for ARM tools. There's a reason people pay SiFive and StarFive to use the rocket core generator for them. (heck, there's a reason I still use WDC65C02's in new designs.) While I'm generally a fan of open source software, open source hardware is a different beast. The cost of copying an open source hardware design is noticeably higher than the cost of copying open source software. You always pay for what you get. If you're lucky, you pay in cash.