> If there is no such manufacturer, than if people understand that it's of value to have hardware/software which they can maintain themselves, such market will be created. You could also build the hardware yourselves.
I'm afraid most of the value is probably in the lab hardware itself, not the FOSS stack fetishism. As such you'd need to figure out how to ship better and/or cheaper lab hardware to gain market share, when an entrenched provider has already learned how to ship state of the art hardware. If you really believe market forces will value FOSS for FOSS's sake that highly, perhaps you'd like to start that hardware startup yourself? You make it sound so simple... perhaps you already started one? But for most, I think the Hobonson's choice I think you're actually proposing is between:
1) Continuing to do lab work with the proprietary hardware
2) Letting someone else replace you when you switch careers to work on your new hardware startup. Your replacement is unlikely to care as much about FOSS as you (after all, you were willing to quit over it!), and even if they do, their replacement likely won't. The perverse result of this is a decreased demand for FOSS lab equipment, not increased demand!
You might increase supply of FOSS lab equipment. Or (and I think this more likely) you'll go bankrupt before moving the needle. Speaking for myself, I can't convince myself of the untapped market potential of this niche, I don't know hardware, I'd be going up against incumbent experts, I'm not passionate about lab equipment... if I somehow acquired investor funding under these circumstances I would worry I had conned them more than I had convinced them of the merits.
Some "choice".
Better to keep doing lab work if that's what you enjoy, and perhaps agitate for less proprietary FOSS options if that's something dear to your heart. Maybe you'll cure cancer and save the lives of future developers of FOSS lab equipment.
I'm afraid most of the value is probably in the lab hardware itself, not the FOSS stack fetishism. As such you'd need to figure out how to ship better and/or cheaper lab hardware to gain market share, when an entrenched provider has already learned how to ship state of the art hardware. If you really believe market forces will value FOSS for FOSS's sake that highly, perhaps you'd like to start that hardware startup yourself? You make it sound so simple... perhaps you already started one? But for most, I think the Hobonson's choice I think you're actually proposing is between:
1) Continuing to do lab work with the proprietary hardware
2) Letting someone else replace you when you switch careers to work on your new hardware startup. Your replacement is unlikely to care as much about FOSS as you (after all, you were willing to quit over it!), and even if they do, their replacement likely won't. The perverse result of this is a decreased demand for FOSS lab equipment, not increased demand!
You might increase supply of FOSS lab equipment. Or (and I think this more likely) you'll go bankrupt before moving the needle. Speaking for myself, I can't convince myself of the untapped market potential of this niche, I don't know hardware, I'd be going up against incumbent experts, I'm not passionate about lab equipment... if I somehow acquired investor funding under these circumstances I would worry I had conned them more than I had convinced them of the merits.
Some "choice".
Better to keep doing lab work if that's what you enjoy, and perhaps agitate for less proprietary FOSS options if that's something dear to your heart. Maybe you'll cure cancer and save the lives of future developers of FOSS lab equipment.