I think they likely just look at the sub-contracting costs and see that the Chinese contractors are massively cheaper then don't ask too many questions.
It's pretty much business as usual to pirate CAD software in China so they probably knew what was happening though.
Right, but usually the licensing around libraries/templates is quite clear? At least it should be.
Here's specifically what they're claiming copyright over:
"DDC’s counsel answered that DDC is focused on expressive content that is not in the actual design of the component, such as the font or the colors used, the shape of a comment box, or the placement of certain components around the design which appear in the design file, but which are not the design itself."
Which seems very weak. Clearly they really would want to go after the Chinese sub-contractor but know this is too hard.
Only way round this I can see is new legislation that means you can be held responsible for copyright violations of sub-contractor if you can reasonably expected to know they are violating copyright.
Going after copyright on the output files is daft and dangerous.
> Right, but usually the licensing around libraries/templates is quite clear?
I think it would have been clear if UE had used legitimate licensed version of the software. In that case I'd imagine they would have gotten license to the auxiliary content too. But if they were using unlicensed pirate version of the software then they would not have had proper license to the content and so the output files would have been infringing too.
> the font or the colors used, the shape of a comment box, or the placement of certain components around the design which appear in the design file, but which are not the design itself
Sounds a lot like a description of a template to me
Yea. Positive and negative muons and pions were found after WWII. The anti-proton wasn't discovered until 1955 following the construction of the Bevatron, an accelerator powerful enough to reach the proton/anti-proton rest mass of ~1 GeV (i.e., a Billion eV).
Anti-particles and particles instantly annihilate each other on contact, so anti-particles cannot not exist in our world besides for brief moments.
There's a theory that half of the universe is made of anti-particles (and the other half composed of regular particles). So you could say that the half we inhibit has few anti-particles in it.
They're also created all the time by radioactive decay which happens in common building materials. So yes, they'll be flying around your room now, but not going much further than that.
So fundamentally what the author is saying is that this laptop is bad is a way that it was never meant to be good. And that's what makes the title click bait because the author is clearly aware of this.
Clearly it was never meant to be as good as a MacBook Pro.
It was meant to be good as an open source laptop (which it is, as one of the few open laptop designs that exists).
Just started re-reading the Baroque cycle and plan to follow with Cryptonomicon. Re-reading really reveals a lot that was a bit of a mystery the first time.
> it also has practical benefits if you are looking to build on the design to say, integrate an fpga.
Okay, what prevents me from designing my own PCB to replace the one in my phone? I can measure the physical dimensions, look up the datasheet for the LCD screen and camera connector and get a new board made.
Since this isn't very practical, no one does it.
It's going to cost far more than any reasonable person would spend to manufacture a modified PCB with an FPGA for this laptop.
If you're going to tell me "well the design is open so you can kickstart it as an alternative" then I'd invite you to ask the OpenMoko guys about how many units they sold. [0]
For anyone who wants a "modular" laptop, just buy one of the above HDMI/USB "lapdocks" and Velcro the Raspberry Pi to the back of the LCD. In the long run it will be just as robust and "modular" as this Olimex product.
I previously worked on getting Debian+E17 running on the OpenMoko, so I'm not just talking out my ass on this.
I think, these are just argument why this isn't a good fit for you.
However it's not really a good argument that this is a bad thing in every use case. Calling this a "bad" laptop when the only other laptop that's open to this degree that I'm aware of is bunnie's novena seems a bit silly.
Building on an established design is going to be far easier than bringing up a new PCB. I'd estimate you could get prototypes of this board (6 layer) made for <<1000USD.
If I needed embedded compute, for an instrument I was designing for low volume manufacture I'd consider these boards. If nothing else, I could probably get them fabbed myself if necessary/desirable.
I can see many use cases like this. As well as the fact that some users just philosophically prefer computers whose design is as open as possible.
Manufacturing jobs Indian salaries are lower. But the effect of automation is showing even there as there is hardly any job growth in that area. The biggest problem India is facing is that population becoming old before it becomes a medium income country.
The thesis here is essentially that they also got regulated out of exsistance. Seen has centers of criminal activity, local government started mandating the removal of inbound calling capability and reduced the number of permits they granted for pay phone installation.
I'm not sure I totally buy this. How much money did pay phones ever make from telecoms companies, given the degree to which they got vandalized and required regular repair anyway.
It's pretty much business as usual to pirate CAD software in China so they probably knew what was happening though.