Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2001 15:07:27 -0700 From: Michael VanLoon <MichaelV@EDIFECS.COM> To: "'Koster, K.J.'" <K.J.Koster@kpn.com>, =?iso-8859-1?Q?=27Diego_A=2E?= =?iso-8859-1?Q?_Puertas_Fern=E1ndez=27?= <dapf@runbox.com> Cc: freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: RE: 3com Winmodem Message-ID: <36F7B20351634E4FBFFE6C6A216B30D54C38@ecx1.edifecs.com>
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> From: Koster, K.J. [mailto:K.J.Koster@kpn.com] > Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2001 3:44 AM > > > Is that true? and if it is, why can't FreeBSD, or Linux, or > > any other UNIX, work with it. > > > Because the manufacturers do not release the hardware specs > to open source > developers. > > This is a FAQ by the way, so search the mailing list archives > before posting > questions like this. To be more specific. A "WinModem" is actually a crippled modem. They throw out as much hardware as possible to make it cheap, then load all the work onto your CPU. Basically, WinModems are evil. Just being connected sucks away CPU resources, where a "real" modem does all that work itself, causing no work for your CPU. Why won't it work? Because it requires that software, you know the software that does all the work on your CPU for the hardware they removed from the modem. That software is written by the modem manufacturers for Windows. And as someone else said, they don't open the binary interface to just anyone, so it's pretty hard for someone else to just whip up some software. There's a reason why these things are so incredibly cheap: they suck. :-) Though it doesn't always hold true, in this case it does so extremely well: you get what you pay for... To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message
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