Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 12:33:21 -0500 From: Dennis <dennis@etinc.com> To: "Andresen,Jason R." <jandrese@mitre.org> Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: if_fxp - the real point Message-ID: <5.0.0.25.0.20010314121316.02988c30@mail.etinc.com> In-Reply-To: <3AAF9D0A.C188E390@mitre.org> References: <200103092332.f29NW4785782@gollum.esys.ca> <20010309221250.2384337B71B@hub.freebsd.org> <200103092332.f29NW4785782@gollum.esys.ca> <5.0.0.25.0.20010314110743.02373a00@mail.etinc.com>
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At 11:32 AM 03/14/2001, you wrote: >Dennis wrote: > > > > At 06:35 AM 03/14/2001, Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai wrote: > > >-On [20010310 01:00], Lyndon Nerenberg (lyndon@messagingdirect.com) wrote: > > > >Perhaps a first step towards leaning on the vendors for documentation > > > >is to publically declare our support for those vendors who *do* > > > >release documentation under reasonable terms. One way to do this > > > >is to acknowledge those vendors in the hardware section of the > > > >handbook, and encourage people to support them by buying thier > > > >products. > > > > Typically companies that are quick to release docs are the weaker > > companies, because they need sales or dont have a clear target market. Plus > > the best technologies are usually proprietary at least in the beginning of > > their deployment. > > > > So your strategy will guarantee alignment with many mediocre products and > > few of the best, which doesnt seem to be in the best interests of anyone. > > > > Telling people that they cant use Intel or 3com cards will more likely > > drive them to other OSes then hurt either of the fore mentioned companies. > > > > A better strategy would be to welcome ALL vendors AND binary distributions > > (who may release source under NDA if they chose) so that the best products > > could be available for FreeBSD without the adversity of the > > "geek-revolution" that you propose. > >I think you underestimate the number of faceless servers thoughout the >world >running FreeBSD or Linux. The jobs they do aren't glamourous, but they >have >to be done (cheap), so they don't get the front page accolades that Sun >UE10ks get, but they do get used. My point is that it will have no impact, so you will only hurt the FreeBSD community. You cant strong-arm companies into making their intellectual properly rights publicly available. its a losing argument. > > >That's what Soeren and me did. HighPoint was very forthcoming with > > >documentation and as part of that synergy they put the FreeBSD Hardware > > >logo on their frontpage <http://www.highpoint-tech.com>; and us > > >mentioning it on our webpages as well as being a primary recommendation > > >over other vendors back when we got little information out of other > > >vendors. > > > > I'm sure that High-point's competitors are shivering in their boots over > > this powerful alliance. > >Probably not, but they might wonder why High-points sales are stronger >than >they should be, and why there is so much positive material about >High-point >cards on the web (while their own cards are barely mentioned). People >who >want to get work done don't want to mess with a company that tries to >stop them (by not releasing specs or drivers for the OS you're using) >and will instead go with the open-minded competetor. selling to geeks is not most companies marketing strategy. What you fail to understand is the negative impact on sales when some taiwanese company clones the hardware and you effectively end up cannibalizing your own business with your efforts. Your also just as likely to get negative press because the guy that writes the driver for your hardware does a lousy job, and the resulting driver sucks and people then think your hardware sucks because most geeks can't separate the hardware from the driver. Your logic is backwards. You think that rewarding mediocre companies will scare good companies into wanting a piece of the pie. The only thing that it will do is consume these companies so that the good companies can have a larger share of the more profitable sun/NT market, and convince them that they want no part of the "free" market if they have to compete with cut-rate hardware from hungry companies. Driving away companies with good products because you dont like their policies is counterproductive. the only reason people use windows is because of their relationships with vendors who sell products that people want. its not about the OS, its about what you can do with it. dennis To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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