kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Brian Sidebotham <brian.sidebotham@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 12 April 2013 11:19, Javier Serrano <javier.serrano.pareja@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 11:42 AM, Brian Sidebotham <
> brian.sidebotham@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> It's really nice that you've put so much effort into explaining where you
>> are coming from and what you are prepared to do for KiCad. Thank-you for
>> taking the time to put the email together and letting us know.
>>
>
> Thanks! (also Miguel Ángel) It's really good to feel welcome. Just to tell
> you something more about our vision: our section has roughly half of its
> people working on hardware design, and the other half on software, mostly
> Linux device drivers. When I looked at the kernel hackers I, as a hardware
> designer, was very jealous (in a good sense) of the freedom they enjoy for
> sharing, getting peer reviews, the flexibility they have to work with
> companies without risking lock-in, etc. This is what I would like for
> hardware designers as well. I don't know how close we will get to that
> ideal, but we are going to give it a good try.
>
>
I'm sure we can get close to providing this model. The open hardware
licence was one of the first things that was required. There have been
attempts before, but the CERN licence is the first I've used. It appears to
be a good, open licence.

With visual diffs for schematics and good text file support under version
control I can see open hardware design becoming like open software design.
The whole "Maker" movement has a lot of momentum and with people using 3D
printing and machining on desktop machines at home I'm sure it'll make the
open hardware design a reality.

Roll on home factories.

Best Regards, Brian.