Talk:Open Source Benchtop Power Supply
An advantage of such opensource instruments over buying a used proprietary instrument on ebay or whatever, is with such instruments usually communications ports (e.g. RS232, USB, ethernet, GPIB, CAN bus) are all optional, and such an instrument might not have any means of interface with a computer. And if they do, their functionality may be limited (e.g. only telemetry available is what is currently displayed on the dot matrix of the device, and at e.g. only 1Hz vs 4-60Hz readings). There is a lot of functionality lacking in the cheaper ($400ish programmable DC power supply $400ish programmable DMM) proprietary models (both new and used) in comparison with more expensive models.
For electronics development I think the EEZ Studio is really top notch, for running experiments, automatically recording results, etc. Typically labs make their own in-house means of achieving such work...