Date: Tue, 06 Oct 1998 13:15:00 -0600 From: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> To: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> Cc: Jerry Hicks <wghicks@bellsouth.net>, FreeBSD Chat <chat@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: RMS on UDI Message-ID: <361A6C34.4AD93BAE@softweyr.com> References: <Your message of "Mon, 05 Oct 1998 20:24:07 PDT." <199810060324.UAA01937@dingo.cdrom.com> <4.1.19981006085422.04379a10@mail.lariat.org>
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Brett Glass wrote:
>
> At 12:03 AM 10/6/98 -0400, Jerry Hicks wrote:
>
> >So what is the attitude around FreeBSD toward UDI? Not the concept, which
> >nearly everyone agrees is a Good Thing, but this particular set of proposals
> >from SCO, Intel, et al.
> >
> >I'm more than a little paranoid about I20 and suspicious of UDI too...
>
> As well we should be. However, the UDI spec is being distributed for free,
> without a demand for large fees, and there really don't seem to be strings
> attached. It seems sort of like the AT&T ABI specs in this regard. If so,
> it's a Good Thing.
If anything, it seems more like UDI is a plot created by SCO to get us
"Open Source" developers to write device drivers for THEM.
I personally have NO feelings whatsoever about this; anyone silly enough to
use SCO when FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and Linux will ALL run on the same
hardware deserve what they get.
I share Brett's (and RMS' -- imagine THEM agreeing on something!)
reservations about Intel's motivation in this. I think most contributors
to the free software community feel that commercial organizations should
not benefit from free software unless they give something back. If,
however, this encourages Intel or any other hardware company to be more
open with specifications and other documentation required to write drivers,
they WILL be giving something back. If Intel undertakes to develope UDI
drivers for the various hardware products they produce, this will benefit
FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Linux, SCO, Sun, and anyone else who uses UDI
drivers.
It'll be interesting to see if Microsoft tries to horn in on this and sway
the UDI spec into agreeing with NT as well. There's somebody to be leery
of, brothers and sisters.
--
Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?
Wes Peters +1.801.915.2061
Softweyr LLC wes@softweyr.com
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