Yeah, I've seen that. I guessed he didn't report back because it didn't work, but who knows. Good question. I agree, that's probably the first step: a more e

Yeah, I've seen that. I guessed he didn't report back because it didn't work, but who knows. Good question. I agree, that's probably the first step: a more expensive inferior product, but I'm trying to look beyond that. If the open tools compete in features, and the manufacturers don't have to recoup design investment, shouldn't the open tools be cheaper? I want to live in a world where people have access to tools at the marginal cost of manufacturer. Once the open tools can compete on features, presumably volume would increase, making them competitive. Rigol, like the bigger test equipment manufactures, sell heavily software limited equipment and charge handsomely for upgrades. Dave on the EEVBlog recently did a teardown of the newly released Tek MDO3000 6-in-1 scope. The entry level box costs ~$3,000. It costs about $15K for all the features enabled. Same hardware. Dave estimated the signal analyzer front end costs $40 in raw parts but $2,500 to enable. What's the real costs of the box? I'm not saying open is necessarily cheaper, but I'm not yet convinced it couldn't be.