38C3 - 7 Years Later: Why And How To Make Portable Open Hardware Computers

media.ccc.de/v...
After more than 7 years, a small team of hackers and designers in Berlin are about to release the third generation of their Open Hardware laptop family: MNT Reform Next. Here, Lukas "minute" Hartmann will discuss why we need Open Hardware computers, what we learned through trial, error and hardship of designing and hand-assembling over 1000 of them by hand, and how you can claw back some autonomy over your hardware from Big Computer.
The talk will illustrate, with many pictures and without holding back, interesting problems and solutions we encountered while creating 3 laptops on shoestring budgets.
Aiming to inspire more people to take custom hardware into their own hands, I will quickly walk through the essential tools and methods that you can use to create your own Open Source Hardware computing devices or modifying existing ones, like:
How and why I choose chips and components
How to get them into KiCAD for electronics, and get boards made
Use FreeCAD and OpenSCAD for 3D modeling, and get enclosures made, also from unorthodox materials
Cables, connectors and screws considerations
Firmware and Kernel troubles (designing Hardware for Linux)
Our basics of community participation (GitLab, IRC, Discourse)
minute
events.ccc.de/...
#38c3
Licensed to the public under creativecommons...

[@johanngambolputty5351]

27:13 Man I would love a laptop with a split keyboard like that, though ideally with modules that can pop out and be placed further apart beside/in front of the laptop.

[@discofoxxy]

7:57 Wearing that shirt is hilarious

[@Waldemar_la_Tendresse]

Not being a mum is even more hilarious. 🤣

[@Waldemar_la_Tendresse]

Here's why 90 percent is by no means better: The said 90 percent does not include the loss of time and value for the user. 98 percent is therefore an absolutely necessary minimum, which is only repeatedly undercut due to financial factors (which simply should not be the main factor in a world of big financial inequality because it is the cause and the effect of exactly this inequality). This statement applies at least to all things that have a significant network effect. 90 percent in health would cost lives. 90 percent in other areas are simply not being measured. However, this does not mean that there are no effects. The difficulties described here mean above all that we as a society have unfortunately long since passed a "break-even point" in terms of the global major players' closed-mindedness and closed-sourceness towards products that we all need for a digital life today. The argument should therefore be turned around. Or to put it another way: "OK Apple. No OSS? (in extreme cases after X years at the latest, with X=3 product cycles?)? No money." I LOVE the "smartphone replacement" idea. Instabuy if Unixes run flawlessly. People who complain about the size clearly don't understand the mechanics. Great talk nevertheless for all the experiences shared.

[@Waldemar_la_Tendresse]

He is talking for half an hour about all the problems and difficulties. The first question is a price question. Perfect summary of a society of 1d1ocy.

[@johanngambolputty5351]

It's a relevant question. People without lots and lots of money might want computing freedom too, do they not deserve that? Bringing up the question and appreciating the hard work are not mutually exclusive. Seeing how low the price for such a machine has gotten may well be one metric you can look at to get an idea of how close/far we might be for such a machine to be more widely available.

[@Waldemar_la_Tendresse]

​@@johanngambolputty5351 I didn't say it's not a relevant question, did I? But if the price is an issue, get a used device or a Raspberry Pi or something similar. So all of your seemingly logical explanation is bollocks. There are at least a dozen more important questions that could have been asked. Here's one: How can the "Open Community" create so much pressure on those big companies, that all the difficulties mentioned in this video will hopefully be history in some years and will create a shift of paradigm?

[@johanngambolputty5351]

@ I am sure there are channels through which you can ask the questions you feel should have been asked. Other individuals are allowed to have their own priorities and decide whats most important for themselves. It feels like such an unnecessary thing to be disrespectful over.

[@Waldemar_la_Tendresse]

​@@johanngambolputty5351 Isn't it disrespectful against the society and the future to NOT ask the more important questions FIRST? 😉

[@olokelo]

Also worth mentioning the question wasn't "why is it so expensive?" but more "what's the price I can buy it for?". I was also genuinely curious about the price during the talk since it's not a mass produced cheap laptop, rather a thing for enthusiasts with a lot of thought put into it.