[sdiy] Secrets [Was: Discrete OTA]

[john slee]

On 11 April 2014 01:36, Neil Johnson <neil.johnson71 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Even if, as I have done above, we assume that human time is free,
> hardware development costs real money out of your pocket.  Software
> development doesn't.

It doesn't _now_.

It wasn't so long ago that many of the really useful components that make
for a decent development environment were actually quite expensive. Either
you had access to a (then fairly expensive) UNIX-like system and its native
toolchain, or you/your employer paid for a PC toolchain and the operating
system underneath it, and probably other software gadgets to make working
on a PC less irritating, like a decent editor. Neither path was even close to
free.

Even if you don't use Linux or any of the other free OSes today, you likely
owe some thanks to at least Richard Stallman for and all the other folks
who've given us gcc/binutils and enabled so many people to develop so
much free software.

The other week I ordered small-batch production of five different two-layer
PCB designs from Seeed. What would that have cost 25 years ago? Four
of the designs, by the way, were Olivier Gillet's breadboard friends. :-)

John