From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Sep 5 07:05:13 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 716EA16A4DA; Tue, 5 Sep 2006 07:05:13 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from andreas@klemm.apsfilter.org) Received: from srv1.cosmo-project.de (srv1.cosmo-project.de [213.83.6.106]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3AA9C43D73; Tue, 5 Sep 2006 07:05:07 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from andreas@klemm.apsfilter.org) Received: from srv1.cosmo-project.de (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by srv1.cosmo-project.de (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id k85755tb033842 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA bits=168 verify=NO); Tue, 5 Sep 2006 09:05:06 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from andreas@klemm.apsfilter.org) Received: (from uucp@localhost) by srv1.cosmo-project.de (8.12.10/8.12.10/Submit) with UUCP id k85755nY033841; Tue, 5 Sep 2006 09:05:05 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from andreas@klemm.apsfilter.org) Received: from titan.klemm.apsfilter.org (localhost.klemm.apsfilter.org [127.0.0.1]) by klemm.apsfilter.org (8.13.8/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k8572JNl014890; Tue, 5 Sep 2006 09:02:19 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from andreas@titan.klemm.apsfilter.org) Received: (from andreas@localhost) by titan.klemm.apsfilter.org (8.13.8/8.13.4/Submit) id k8572JRo014889; Tue, 5 Sep 2006 09:02:19 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from andreas) Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 09:02:19 +0200 From: Andreas Klemm To: "Marc G. Fournier" Message-ID: <20060905070219.GC13764@titan.klemm.apsfilter.org> References: <950621ad0608310654h78ae0023g346abd108815ae72@mail.gmail.com> <20060831110112.J82634@hub.org> <20060831184715.B82634@hub.org> <44F7619B.8010609@evilkittens.org> <20060831192632.T82634@hub.org> <20060831225719.GG25515@ribeyre.gentiane.org> <20060831200228.B82634@hub.org> <20060831230642.GH25515@ribeyre.gentiane.org> <20060831201338.F82634@hub.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20060831201338.F82634@hub.org> X-Operating-System: FreeBSD 6.1-STABLE X-Disclaimer: A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.11 Cc: miros-discuss@mirbsd.org, misc@openbsd.org, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org, netbsd-users@netbsd.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: Tue, 05 Sep 2006 07:05:13 -0000 On Thu, Aug 31, 2006 at 08:14:31PM -0300, Marc G. Fournier wrote: > On Thu, 31 Aug 2006, Miod Vallat wrote: > > >>If the vendor is supporting the driver, and working with the community, > >>then one would hope that they would also fix the driver as bug reports > >>come in about it ... > > > >That's too many ifs to be realworld-compatible. > > > >And actually the only vendors I can think of which are working with the > >community actually provide documentation, if only because it is simpler > >for them to spend time on documentation than on code for N different > >systems. > > ICP Vortex (aka Adaptec) were providing drivers on their web site for > FreeBSD 4.x and 5.x that are included in both source trees ... it was a > binary driver, as far as I'm aware, but source code ... and Adaptec > doesn't provide documentation ... I don't think that binary only drivers are well enough. Surely better than nothing but ... Don't forget that an open source team sometimes makes api changes that might break a "binary only" driver. And companies sometimes are slow in fixing. Or the vendor did some mistakes in his own driver. First the paying customers are served. All the other folks (open source ..) surely will come last. For some smaller corps supporting open source developers is simply a burden that costs time and so money. I know this from a medium sized german company producing nice audio recording cards. It was impossible to get a card and documentation from them for a FreeBSD developers. And after weeks and months of asking via e-mail they decided finally to tell the truth that they don't want to support open source developers anymore, it makes too much work. They are unable to spend so much time answering open source developers questions although they got documentation. This experience they made with Linux developers. Andreas /// -- Andreas Klemm - Powered by FreeBSD 6 Need a magic printfilter today ? -> http://www.apsfilter.org/