The average open sourcerer
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What is the average open sourcerer these days?
He/she got Linux intel PC, tablets running Linux, some USB stick type of computer to play with, a couple of USB and internet gadgets, a couple of monitors, some bare board ARM PCs running various distros from Android to Ubuntu, a color MFC printer with the doors hacked and connected upto CISS cartridges which are being fed with very large bottles of ink, a 3D printer, some electronic boards, a soldering iron, and bench supply and oscilloscope.
They have membership of local hack spaces, and have access to laser cutters, metal cutting plasma torches - possibly CNC control to get dxf drawings cut, routers to mill out 3D shapes, access to 3D scanners to capture 3D objects as well wires, nuts and bolts and all the sundries in between.
What are these open soucerors up to with today's technology in the hands of sourcerers?
With 3D printers bleating away all the time, the average open sourcers is capable of at least one new or custom product a week,
This is what the fastest most agile companies were capable of 5 years ago, but now the power to make it happen is in the hands of the open sourcerers and they can make it happen in 1 week with their own hands.
Products that rely on laser cutting take about a few hours to make happen. Products that require 3D printing take 2 to 3 days to happen. Products that require a PCB require about 2 days to design and about 1 week to get made.
(There is potential for PCB companies here to note that faster PCB production can earn you a lot more cash if you can do it at the same price as the slower companies.)
Software is mostly images of Linux being loaded into boards that are pre-made.
(Again there is opportunities here to make cut and paste open source boards available to make that less expensive and more rapid to turn around a design in under 1 day for PCB design.)
The final item needed to hack all the bits together to make software and hardware work is a bit of scripting and if requires a GUI then a screen and GUI system such as Gambas will do.
(Again opportunity here as this type of drop in screen and GUI development system is so hard to come by hindering instant product development.)
So the open sourcerers of today are incredibly powerful people able to make 1 product a week on average.
With this type of open sourcerers taking hold everywhere there is massive opportunity for anyone who can see where all the bottle necks are and fix it by setting up fulfilment centers that specifically address these issues.