Part 2—Discussion: Who Pays for the Atoms?

At one point in the conversation, Mike Kuniavsky asked Ari Douglas, “Who pays for the atoms, and when?” With most open-source software, the laptop is already paid for and the bits are essentially free. The biggest difference between software and hardware is that the cost of producing the hardware in small quantities can be prohibitively high and the complexity of producing boards increases as you increase production.