Via Technologies released the hardware design for a low-cost laptop with WiMax support under an open-source license on Tuesday, a move intended to make customization easier and shorten design cycles for system makers. The CAD (computer-assisted design) files for the OpenBook reference design can be downloaded for free and made available to anyone under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 license. The terms of this license allow the CAD files to be freely copied, shared and modified.

The only requirements are that use of the design is attributed to Via and changes made to the design can only be distributed under the same license or one that has similar terms. "We're hoping we'll get some interesting feedback, and look forward to seeing what the community thinks about this concept," said Richard Brown, vice president of marketing at Via.

View: The full story @ PCWorld


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(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #1 Posted by vetmarkjensen on 27 May 2008 - 13:39
<pedantic>
Arrrgh! It is documentation not code. Documentation is released under different licenses, such as Creative Commons (as is the case here), not under the GPL, MIT, BSD or other type of license for source code.

The article's writer, Sumner Lemon, should know better, I guess, since he specifically mentioned "Creative Commons", but I guess tech journalists aren't necessarily tech-minded.

I feel better now.
</pedantic>
Quote this comment #1.1 Posted by Havin_it on 28 May 2008 - 11:39
I know what you're getting at, but the wording still is kind of appropriate, in spirit if not to the letter. I don't know if there is a snappy cover-all term equivalent to "open-source" that fits documentation, for one thing. OpenDocument? No, that's taken...

I think when you are talking about something like CAD files it pretty much works as a description, if you think about what the alternative would be. Blurb and pretty pictures are all very well, but if you have editable CAD files, you are a lot closer to being able to modify what you are given and create something new -- and much simpler to turn into a finished product, as in many cases now you can hand over the CAD files to a hi-end manufacturing contractor who can literally plug in those files, and plop out a laptop. You could draw a parallel between this and having a bunch of C code ready to feed into a popular compiler.

[Sidenote: the way modern manufacturers can do this kind of thing reminds me of the 1980s British animated series "Bertha", about a factory whose centrepiece was a huge machine that could make just about anything (with hilarious results). We scarcely dared to realise how prescient this show was! ]

To go briefly on-topic, I'm quite thrilled to see this offering. Open software will always have a home on Open hardware
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #2 Posted by Airlink on 27 May 2008 - 23:14
Yeah well, since VIA is having a hell of a time selling any of it's laptop designs they might as well just publish it under a open license. At lest that way some electronics hobbyists might be more inclined to buy VIA-brand chips.
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