SoylentNews

Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

Has the computer become a black box, even to experienced electrical engineers?

Will we be forever reliant upon large, opaque organizations to build them for us? Absolutely not, we say. And to prove our point, we built our very own laptop [ieee.org], from the circuit boards on up.

Admittedly, we did not delude ourselves that we could build a laptop that would be faster, smaller, or cheaper than those of Apple, Dell, or HP. However, we did set out to build a machine powerful and convenient enough to use every day. Fortunately, our dream inspired enough people to crowdfund the effort. Our laptop, which we call Novena, started shipping to backers in January 2015.

TFA has a lot more details on the project, the steps involved, the choices they made.

Original Submission