101
Why hasn't anyone built an entirely free computer yet?
(lemmy.world)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2024
101 points (89.8% liked)
Linux
47343 readers
1395 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backyard_furnace
It's a parallel. Mao tried to create industry in people's backyards. It took people away from food production, destroyed existing valuable metal products, deforested the areas, and for all that effort, resulted in product with quality so bad it was unusable.
While it would probably also be more like input material production, silicon ingots and wafer slicing and such, I'm sure the quality would equally be shit enough to be unusable. Especially since metalwork tolerances are usually in micrometers at best, but microchips are in the nanometers.
You're vastly underestimating the gulf of complexity between metal fabrication and processor manufacturing.
If this was even remotely feasible, don't you think China would have done it for the several year long microchip shortage?
Yes, I understand there are orders of magnitude of complexity between the two. And no, it's not remotely feasible, like I said, they wouldn't be any good. If anything, I'm agreeing with you that no system of government, or system of economics for that matter, would make it practical.