From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Aug 31 23:01:56 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 482DA16A4DD; Thu, 31 Aug 2006 23:01:56 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from scrappy@freebsd.org) Received: from hub.org (hub.org [200.46.204.220]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C055543D45; Thu, 31 Aug 2006 23:01:55 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from scrappy@freebsd.org) Received: from localhost (mx1.hub.org [200.46.208.251]) by hub.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2C6CA290C98; Thu, 31 Aug 2006 20:01:51 -0300 (ADT) Received: from hub.org ([200.46.204.220]) by localhost (mx1.hub.org [200.46.208.251]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 97310-10; Thu, 31 Aug 2006 20:01:54 -0300 (ADT) Received: by hub.org (Postfix, from userid 1046) id DA5DA291AFA; Thu, 31 Aug 2006 20:01:49 -0300 (ADT) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by hub.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CF044290C98; Thu, 31 Aug 2006 20:01:49 -0300 (ADT) Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 20:01:49 -0300 (ADT) From: "Marc G. Fournier" X-X-Sender: freebsd@hub.org To: Pedro Martelletto In-Reply-To: <20060831223543.GC15085@jp.animata.net> Message-ID: <20060831195609.P82634@hub.org> References: <20060830232723.GU10101@multics.mit.edu> <98f5a8830608301731s2b0663e3g94b0bd32f8a06a78@mail.gmail.com> <950621ad0608310654h78ae0023g346abd108815ae72@mail.gmail.com> <20060831110112.J82634@hub.org> <20060831184715.B82634@hub.org> <20060831223543.GC15085@jp.animata.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Cc: misc@openbsd.org, Harpalus a Como , "Constantine A. Murenin" , "Marc G. Fournier" , Thorsten Glaser , netbsd-users@netbsd.org, miros-discuss@mirbsd.org, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: The future of NetBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Non technical items related to the community List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 23:01:56 -0000 On Thu, 31 Aug 2006, Pedro Martelletto wrote: > On Thu, Aug 31, 2006 at 06:50:00PM -0300, Marc G. Fournier wrote: >> Even at the kernel level? Look at device drivers and vendors as one >> example ... companies like adaptec have to write *one* device driver, for, >> what, 50+ distributions of linux ... for us, they need to write one for >> FreeBSD, one for NetBSD, one for OpenBSD, and *now* one for DragonflyBSD >> ... if we had *at least* a common API for that sort of stuff, it might be >> asier to get support at the vendor level, no? > > Vendors should release documentation, not write drivers. In a perfect world, they all would ... this is not a perfect world, it is one dominated by Linux or Microsoft ... I use Adaptec drivers on 3 of my servers, because, in 4.x, they were rock solid ... in 6.x, they have a problem ... I'd like to be able to go out and upgrade those servers to a vendor that provides "documentation", but its a cost I can't afford at this time ... so, should I then switch to Linux because they do welcome 'vendor written drivers'? Rhetorical question, since I do not consider switching to Linux an option ... instead, I'm trying to do something to help *BSD advocates promote *BSD to those vendors (see http://www.bsdstats.org) by showing them that we aren't just a 'hobbiest operating system' ... what my point is, though, is if we aren't willing to accept 'vendor written drivers', then it is *we* that are limiting our growth but limiting what hardware we can run stably on ...