Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 11:56:57 -0700 From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> To: Luigi Rizzo <luigi@labinfo.iet.unipi.it> Cc: mike@smith.net.au, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: TMC-950 scsi card Message-ID: <25459.903639417@time.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 20 Aug 1998 18:37:34 %2B0200." <199808201637.SAA27429@labinfo.iet.unipi.it>
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> At least let's not try to discourage people from having a look at the > linux sources and try to port their drivers... I've certainly never discouraged that, nor the porting of drivers in general. New drivers, assuming that they work, are always good! :) I think perhaps what Mike was really trying to say (if I may be so bold) is that what makes a driver truly successful is not just whether it's developed, but WHEN it's developed. Part of what makes Linux such a juggernaut is the *timeliness* of their support and not just the fact that they support so much stuff. I don't have to tell any of you that the PC market is changing at a painfully rapid pace, and offering support for some device that was popular 3 years ago is sort of at the wrong end of the diminshing returns scale. What would have brought you (the OS provider) far more kudos would be having the driver 3 years ago, when the device was new and popular, even if you had to release it a little green. That's the challenge we have to face first and foremost today if we don't want the cycle to repeat itself and, happily, we do seem to be getting better at making things happen more quickly (go Bill go! :). Of course, I can also see the value of being able to run on all that obsolete hardware lying around (since it's the easiest to bust loose when you're looking for a PC for that "midnight mail router" project) and I certainly wouldn't *discourage* such efforts to go back and implement drivers for the missed-market-window hardware. I just wouldn't put it first on my list of things to do. :-) - Jordan To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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