From owner-freebsd-hackers Wed Dec 20 16:21:28 2000 From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Dec 20 16:21:26 2000 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from smtp02.teb1.iconnet.net (smtp02.teb1.iconnet.net [209.3.218.43]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DBAB337B400 for ; Wed, 20 Dec 2000 16:21:25 -0800 (PST) Received: from bellatlantic.net (client-151-198-117-10.nnj.dialup.bellatlantic.net [151.198.117.10]) by smtp02.teb1.iconnet.net (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id TAA22299; Wed, 20 Dec 2000 19:21:20 -0500 (EST) Sender: root@smtp02.teb1.iconnet.net Message-ID: <3A414CFF.89F4D9D6@bellatlantic.net> Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 19:21:19 -0500 From: Sergey Babkin X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (X11; U; FreeBSD 4.0-19990626-CURRENT i386) X-Accept-Language: en, ru MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Justin Wojdacki Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD vs Linux, Solaris, and NT References: <5.0.0.25.0.20001219120619.020cbac0@mail.etinc.com> <3A4012A0.44B4CEED@bellatlantic.net> <3A401DC9.FE79B8AB@chiplogic.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Justin Wojdacki wrote: > > Sergey Babkin wrote: > > > > The drivers are _not_ assets. When I buy a piece of hardware I > > very reasonably expect that it would come with drivers or at > > least the manual on how to write these. It's a part of the deal. > > There are absolutely no reasons for the card manufacturers to > > withhold this information, their hardware is their copyright > > protection device and source of profit. > > > However, if the device requires software to take on part of the > functionality (examples: WinModems, although I'm not sure whether it's > the driver or the OS that's doing the work there. I also suspect some > OpenGL cards may be like this), then the driver is more likely to be > considered an asset. Therefore, asserting that the device manufacturer > has no reason to withhold this information is unfortunately incorrect. Agreed. But still keeping the hardware interface secret does not make that much sense. -SB To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message