Is it possible to apply Open Source principle to Hardware development?

general
1

One of the greatest strengths of Linux is based on it’s community working together to build it’s tech. That has got me thinking if it is possible to get hardware development to thrive on Open Source. Imagine that people could play around circuits, with 3D printed circuit designs shared among the community and being able to customize hardware of devices like we customize with codes on Linux.

Is it possible possible to publish hardware designs publicly and allow people to tweak it and modify to their particular needs? Is it possible to share tools for designing hardware and it’s possible debugging? Can we have communities that share hardware documentation, documentation and collaborative development?

What do you think would be the challenges of making hardware open source?
Share your views.

2

Open-source hardware is a highly discussed topic in the community, even though it is not as popular as software. This is because hardware development is more difficult and generally requires the support of a company. Despite this, there are still many active projects related to open-source hardware. Arduino is one of them, for example.

You can find some open-source hardware projects with that link: