The Inside Story Of The Open Source PC, And How It Could Stop You Being A Slave To Your Hardware

Nick Heath | Tech Republic | May 23, 2014

Hardware engineer Andrew 'bunnie' Huang on how his path to building an open source computer started with a childhood fascination with the Apple II and why we need to rediscover open hardware.

When Andrew Huang was eight years old his dad bought a clone of an Apple II PC.

Peering at the maze of circuits inside and the esoteric diagrams in its schematics the young Huang knew this machine was something special....Today Huang, who goes by the nickname 'bunnie', has just drummed up more than $700,000 through the website Crowd Supply for his project to build an open source computer called Novena.

Huang is setting out to create a machine whose inner workings are as transparent as the computer that three decades ago sparked his lifelong interest in creating hardware...