It's time to start talking about Hardware Manufacturing. We need to consider topics and answer questions such as:

1. How do we go about finding manufacturers?
2. Who is going to be involved in taking a lead on this task?
3. Design of the Supply Chain Process

There are many more. But we need to start thinking about this as we get near to making the decisions on various components of Open OEM Computer.

Strategy of Hardware Manufacturing

I propose we start on the basis that we manufacture nothing and assemble a list of 'off-the-shelf' components we can integrate into an Open Design.
The criteria for candidate components is that the have OpenSource drivers available. This has always been one of the key parameters of the OpenOEM idea.
Once we have this list we can look at filling in the blank spaces where there are no open sourced hardware components available.
This will give us a good idea of the direction of any manufacturing we have to do will go in.
We also need to look at enclosure designs because they will also affect our design process (i.e. air flow and cooling strategies, EM and RF interference, power distribution and servicability of parts)
In relation to this it is time to draw up an outline specification for each of the main designs (i.e. Mobile and Fixed platforms)
This will feed back into the list of selected manufacturers and their expertise. (i.e. Foxconn for Laptops/ Asus for Laptops/Desktops or ourselves if we have to do it all ourselves)

We can spit this project into two broad categories:

1. Manufacturing and Logistics.

and

2. Project Management and Finance/Legal.

1. Manufacturing and Logistics.
Manufacturing covers all of the above points and will need a dedicated team. Myself and Kevin are already on this team but we are going to need help.

2. Project Management and Finance/Legal.
This is the group tasked with finding out how we are going to pay for the work we have to do, if we are going to be on a sound financial basis going forwards and this team will also have to assess any legal vulnerabilities we might have. Myself and Kevin are also on this team. we shall be acting as the first level liaison between groups and we will be reporting to both groups to keep them aware of any issues. Financial needs to be made aware of any issues with manufacturing and vice-versa. Again we shall need volunteers.

All of the decisions taken by the wider project (e.g.: 30 day CPU and OS discussions) will feed back into both these groups and drive a large part of the project forwards. Likewise both groups will be regularly feeding back progress and information to the wider project in terms of milestones met and issues encountered as we go forwards.

We will have to have a serious discussion to determine the nature of the project going forwards. This will require a forum thread under this section because it also has a huge impact on our potential success or failure.

Dale.

In terms of finances, has anyone thought of using some kind of pre-pay credit system? I don't need to buy a new computer at the moment (though I'd possibly be interested in one or two of the individual components). However, I'd like to be able to pay some money to help the project get off the ground, which I could then use later to help pay for one of the Open OEM computers, or a particular component, once the project's been established and has enough money coming in.

I think people are really starting to actively look for what we are creating here. Just read some of the comments in the follow up on this page or read the linked article.
Why Dell Won't Offer Linux on the Desktop.

From the Comments

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by Canordis (826884) on Monday March 12, @12:11AM (#1831249

I hope parent is merely a troll (Grandma + config file is rapidly turning into a troll meme) but I'll bite. 1998 called; they want their lack of GUI configuration tools back.

On my Ubuntu box, I have had to manually edit configuration files to do two things:

* Install and configure beta software
* Install and configure Apache + MediaWiki
* Configure Vi

The one other type of config file I've had to edit regularly in the recent past are xorg.conf files. A computer that comes with Linux preinstalled would never need xorg.conf twiddlery; reconfiguring it when you upgrade your graphics cards isn't a particularly difficult thing to do (If you're the sort of person who is likely to upgrade your own hardware, then you can do it).

The real reason Dell won't offer Linux PCs is plainly that it's not a good deal for them. It would mean more expensive Windows licenses, and it would mean less money for them from all the people paying them to bundle crapware with their boxes. The only way to have good, high-quality Linux PCs is to have an OEM willing to sell nothing but Linux boxes. Preferably one willing to sell well-designed, high-end computers and laptops with fully compatible hardware and pre-installed, thoroughly tested desktop environments and proprietary format support. Hopefully, packaged with a nice manual and long-term tech support for a particular set of "supported" packages too (Like Canonical does with Ubuntu).

Hey, I can dream.

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The timing seems approriate.

dale.

I wonder if anyone has had any thoughts on this front. There have been suggestions of things like prepaid credit and things like that, does anybody know if they are even workable approaches. If we get into manufacturing even on an integrators level there is going to be a large requirement for capital funding. I don't know if prepaid credit would be sufficient. This is still a key issue in my opinion and it's not going away. No matter how well intentioned we all are, none of it matters if we can't make it happen in the real world. We can dream of exotic ISA designs and miraculous CPU and GPU arrangements but none of that will happen if we don't get our act together on this front. This is where the rubber meets the road. We have to figure a way out to manufacture and build in the right quantities to give everybody a fair price and build the infrastructure for further developments in the project as it goes forwards.

Quote

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dale :

Strategy of Hardware Manufacturing

I propose we start on the basis that we manufacture nothing and assemble a list of 'off-the-shelf' components we can integrate into an Open Design.
The criteria for candidate components is that the have OpenSource drivers available. This has always been one of the key parameters of the OpenOEM idea.
Once we have this list we can look at filling in the blank spaces where there are no open sourced hardware components available.
This will give us a good idea of the direction of any manufacturing we have to do will go in.
We also need to look at enclosure designs because they will also affect our design process (i.e. air flow and cooling strategies, EM and RF interference, power distribution and servicability of parts)
In relation to this it is time to draw up an outline specification for each of the main designs (i.e. Mobile and Fixed platforms)
This will feed back into the list of selected manufacturers and their expertise. (i.e. Foxconn for Laptops/ Asus for Laptops/Desktops or ourselves if we have to do it all ourselves)

We can spit this project into two broad categories:

1. Manufacturing and Logistics.

and

2. Project Management and Finance/Legal.

1. Manufacturing and Logistics.
Manufacturing covers all of the above points and will need a dedicated team. Myself and Kevin are already on this team but we are going to need help.

2. Project Management and Finance/Legal.
This is the group tasked with finding out how we are going to pay for the work we have to do, if we are going to be on a sound financial basis going forwards and this team will also have to assess any legal vulnerabilities we might have. Myself and Kevin are also on this team. we shall be acting as the first level liaison between groups and we will be reporting to both groups to keep them aware of any issues. Financial needs to be made aware of any issues with manufacturing and vice-versa. Again we shall need volunteers.

All of the decisions taken by the wider project (e.g.: 30 day CPU and OS discussions) will feed back into both these groups and drive a large part of the project forwards. Likewise both groups will be regularly feeding back progress and information to the wider project in terms of milestones met and issues encountered as we go forwards.

We will have to have a serious discussion to determine the nature of the project going forwards. This will require a forum thread under this section because it also has a huge impact on our potential success or failure.

Dale.

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and you need to find out who is going to sell the computers or if you or going to set up a website and sell them yourself

Just to comment on some of the things which have been said:

Vrivarro Says:

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Let me see...

We are building a computer anybody can imitate and improve.

Our schematics are free, so nobody would need to pay us a dime to use them.

It seems to me, we are going to have to do the building and selling ourselves, if we want to see any money (in order to avoid bankruptcy).

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In reality this is actually the state of the computer market at present. I can take a Dell or HP computer and bring it home. Take it apart to see what the components are and then assemble an identical model and sell it on. This has been the nature of the PC market bacause of two things: IBM selecting 'Off the Shelf' parts from companies like intel in the beginning and Compaq's successful 'Reverse Engineering' of the BIOS back in the early 80's. But just because you can copy something doesn't mean you can do it better, or that you even want to.
ALso there is a cost issue in that no matter how free the schematics are.....it still costs money to manufacture parts.
These factors all contribute to the costs involved in the business that would have to be borne in any case.

Vrivarro

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Why should I (private investor) pay back royalties or percentages of profits to the organization that designs the products that I make, if I obtain them for free?

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Investors will invest because we can show where we can make a profit on the sales of our products and services (if that's where we end up) There is no secret to making beer or hamburgers or any one of a dozen other products sold on the open market today, yet these separate companies have no difficulties in raising capital for expansion, because they can show a profit centre in their business.

And let's not forget that the 'intellectual property' of our designed hardware will likely be licensed under some form of the GPL (or equivalent) and as a result any manufacturing improvements made by our competitors would also be available to us. One of the lesser spoken benefits of such a strategy is that the Costs of R&D can then be spread out over a much larger base to amortise the costs to each individual company. We see this effect every day in the Open Source and Free Software world.

What our approach will ultimately do is force companies to compete more forcefully on the basis of customer services and the actual customers experience both during and after the transactional stage of the relationship.

Vrivarro is quite right when he says we will need a Website and a means of taking Online payments to start with, in the same way as many other businesses function nowadays. In fact most business now make the internet their first sales channel and only develop more traditional sales channels later.

As far as I am concerned we do have challenges and difficulties to overcome, but these challenges and difficulties are NOT exacerbated by our principles and our morals but simplpy the same challenges and difficulties any new business would have.

I am still confident we can do this.

Dale.