From owner-freebsd-hackers Fri Mar 30 9:49:27 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from guild.plethora.net (guild.plethora.net [205.166.146.8]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8985F37B71C for ; Fri, 30 Mar 2001 09:49:24 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from seebs@guild.plethora.net) Received: from guild.plethora.net (seebs@localhost.plethora.net [127.0.0.1]) by guild.plethora.net (8.10.1/8.10.1) with ESMTP id f2UHnNK02853 for ; Fri, 30 Mar 2001 11:49:23 -0600 (CST) Message-Id: <200103301749.f2UHnNK02853@guild.plethora.net> From: seebs@plethora.net (Peter Seebach) Reply-To: seebs@plethora.net (Peter Seebach) To: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: if_fxp - the real point In-reply-to: Your message of "Fri, 30 Mar 2001 13:03:23 EST." <5.0.0.25.0.20010330123625.03db9610@mail.etinc.com> Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 11:49:23 -0600 Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG In message <5.0.0.25.0.20010330123625.03db9610@mail.etinc.com>, Dennis writes: [snip] Dennis, everything you're saying sounds exactly like the people who were saying, five or ten years ago, that Linux would *never* make *any* difference, because Microsoft had already won. If there is a measurable population of people to whom open specs are important, open specs are a competitive advantage. Over time, they are likely to win if all else is equal... and in the long run, all else *is* equal. Is General Motors worried about using a card for which the drivers require an NDA? No. Is Home Depot, who are running a lot of boxes on Linux, more likely to standardize on a few thousand cards that their programmers assure them are "safer for us"? Yes. The pressure need not be overwhelming to be real. Over time, yes, I expect to see more vendors release hardware specs, because failure to do so can cost them *at least some* sales. The number of sales seems to be steadily going up. It can be very small today and still be a big deal in five years. -s To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message