Selling software as hardware the Branserv way

But there is also a very powerful letter "h" available, one that's often overlooked. Hardware.

It's not just phones and Netbooks. Routers increasingly rely on open source, both on the low end and the high end. Medical devices use it. So do clouds.

Recognizing this entrepreneur Alex Pyatetsky wants to get busy with an idea he calls Branserv.

It's not a cereal, and it's not an advertising outfit. It's an idea to take your software, turn it into hardware, and sell it to the world.

As an example of the kind of program he's working to attract Pyatetsky mentions Wordpress.mu, a version of the software running this blog targeted at running lots of blogs. Turn it into hardware and sell the hardware, he suggests.

All this may go nowhere, but it's an example of just how much imagination open source can generate.