Hardware design isn't limited to gates, PCB traces and ASICs. This seems remarkably like hardware design to me.
As much as you might not agree, plans for building a birdhouse constitute hardware design too.
As much as you might not agree, plans for building a birdhouse constitute hardware design too.
Sure I've opened the schematics, but unlike a birdhouse made from wood you have zero chance of being able to build one from scratch on your own, or sourcing the Intel™ processors from another vendor.
This is the same reason for why if I release the binary of a program produced with a secret compiler as "open source" I'll be laughed at, it completely goes against the spirit of the thing, which is that anyone should be able to change any part of the thing I've released.
It's good that they're doing this. But it's completely incomparable to actual fully open source hardware.
Sure I've opened the schematics, but unlike a birdhouse made from wood you have zero chance of being able to build one from scratch on your own, or sourcing the Intel™ processors from another vendor.
This is some kind of confluence of the values of FSF captial-F "Free" style software with the more pragmatic goals associated with open source.
> This is some kind of confluence of the values of
> FSF captial-F "Free" style software with the more
> pragmatic goals associated with open source.
There's a real and unambiguous line to be drawn in the sand here. If you get "open source" plans for hardware that you can't replicate with third-party fabrication & your own materials it's not open source. It's just a recipe for assembling commercial proprietary components.
It's awesome that people publish those recipes, but don't call it open source hardware and dilute the meaning of hardware that is genuinely open.
Some of the most active areas of research in data center design are around the mechanical design to maximize cooling.
Since there is hardware that is actually open in that sense it's worthwhile to distinguish whether you're talking about open hardware or merely open plans for assembly of closed hardware.