We have a variety of machines in our shop, and overall my Pro has been solid for years: it holds tolerances, starts fast, is easy to clean, and requires near-zero operator training. My biggest frustration is simply the lack of FireControl and BendControl releases.
By day, I’m an embedded hardware/firmware engineer. For context, here are my stats for the last 2 days:
Lines Changed (Last 2 Days)
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Files changed: 121
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Insertions: +6,067
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Deletions: -3,465
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Net change: +2,602
I’m using leading-edge agentic tooling and typically make 10+ repository commits per day. I’ve also been coding since 1978 — almost 50 years — so I’ve watched development models evolve a lot over time.
At this point, Langmuir should seriously consider open-sourcing FireControl and BendControl, and allowing the community to contribute improvements, enhancements, and bug fixes. Langmuir could still control the official release process by managing pull requests, while also allowing advanced users to run their own forks when needed.
Yes, this is a big step for Langmuir, and I understand the safety/liability implications. But those issues can be addressed with licensing, disclaimers, gated builds, and clear separation between “community builds” and official validated releases. Done properly, it would allow Langmuir to focus on design and manufacturing of new products, while the community helps maintain and improve legacy software.
Linux was open-sourced 35 years ago, and the result speaks for itself: billions of deployments, powering much of the internet and all Android devices, supported by a massive developer community. I’m not claiming FireControl/BendControl is Linux — but the open development model clearly works when managed well.
August 25 1991
