From owner-freebsd-hackers Mon May 13 22:51:12 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from snipe.prod.itd.earthlink.net (snipe.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.62]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0BD7E37B403 for ; Mon, 13 May 2002 22:51:03 -0700 (PDT) Received: from pool0280.cvx40-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net ([216.244.43.25] helo=mindspring.com) by snipe.prod.itd.earthlink.net with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #2) id 177VCz-0003m2-00; Mon, 13 May 2002 22:50:50 -0700 Message-ID: <3CE0A581.19C74087@mindspring.com> Date: Mon, 13 May 2002 22:49:53 -0700 From: Terry Lambert X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en]C-CCK-MCD {Sony} (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Peter Wemm Cc: David Greenman-Lawrence , Matthew Dillon , jamie@tridentmicrosystems.co.uk, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Broadcom BCM5701 Chipset problems References: <20020514041918.DF28E380F@overcee.wemm.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Peter Wemm wrote: > Terry Lambert wrote: > > Has anyone tapped the manufacturer on the shoulder hard enough to > > get an answer? > > "Why are you not using Linux or another supported OS?" > > No, they so far have steadfastly refused to supply information about bugs > and errata in such a way that we could use them in an open source driver. > > ie: you cannot get anything without an NDA that basically forfeits the > souls of your next 5 generations of offspring if you even mention there > might be bug in the hardware to your next door neighbor with a quiet > whisper. OK, that's overdoing it :-), but you get the idea of the problem. > Their NDA process just doesn't cater for open source development. Sounds like something worth publicising on slashdot and otherwise embarrasing them into doing something. Personally, I'd like to see the same firmware support as for the Tigon II, so we could "just fix it". The Tigon III's are nicer, but they lack the neat R&D work that people like Bill Paul and others have done for the Tigon II (e.g. the 4K aligned buffer firmware for the zero copy support, etc.). Things have really gone down hill since they sold the company to someone who thinks the fact that humans breathe Oxygen is a trade secret yielding competitive advantage. 8-(. -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message