[kiba]

It does seem to me that new companies can't start, but I doubt somebody really interested in 3D printing research would really care?

[steveklabnik]

But we'd move forward faster if we had both startups and university research working on the problem.

I'm not saying that it quashes all of it, just that it's set back personal fabrication 25 years.

[kiba]

I'm not saying that it quashes all of it, just that it's set back personal fabrication 25 years.

Forgive me for my historical ignorance, is there any sort of open hardware movement 25 years ago?

If not, than replication technology 25 years ago would probably have a different character.

[elai]

The parallels between the makerbot/reprap and the Altair 8800 in 1975 is very interesting. It couldn't do much, but it marked the start of the "personal" computer era. Microsoft made it's first piece of software for that machine.