From owner-freebsd-hardware Wed Mar 10 14:54:25 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from picnic.mat.net (picnic.mat.net [206.246.122.133]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 08CF515157 for ; Wed, 10 Mar 1999 14:54:01 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from chuckr@mat.net) Received: from localhost (chuckr@localhost) by picnic.mat.net (8.9.3/8.8.5) with ESMTP id RAA68169; Wed, 10 Mar 1999 17:51:14 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 17:51:14 -0500 (EST) From: Chuck Robey To: Richard Cownie Cc: vev@michvhf.com, dan@wolf.com, freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: PCI WinModem In-Reply-To: <199903101708.MAA20518@lonesome.ma.ikos.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Wed, 10 Mar 1999, Richard Cownie wrote: > Vince Vielhaber wrote: > >One of the biggest drawbacks to WinPeripherals is the lack of an open > >standard. Look at the new win printers. They're a lose if you don't > >run windows. The spec isn't open and everything has to be reverse > > OK, so far the only substantive criticism of WinModems and WinPeripherals > in general is that they only run with Windows. On the plus side these > things tend to offer good performance at ultra-cheap prices. How do you define good performance? They slow down your cpu doing stupid stuff that all other modems do *very* cheaply without bothering your cpu. You save a small amount of bucks and waste your system processing power, which is something I *would* pay more for. No, it's *not* attractive, unless you're trying to be ultra-cheap. That isn't to say that I disagree with the other reasons for avoiding Windows products (I certainly agree with them!) I think monpolists are extremely unethical, and Microsoft is a fine example of the worst possible business ethics in America. You may forward that to them if you want. > > Obviously if you want to run FreeBSD you shouldn't buy stuff that only > works with Windows - but let's be honest and recognize this as being > a deficiency of FreeBSD, rather than slagging off Windows and WinModems. > > Richard Cownie (tich@ma.ikos.com) > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message > > ----------------------------+----------------------------------------------- Chuck Robey | Interests include any kind of voice or data chuckr@glue.umd.edu | communications topic, C programming, and Unix. 213 Lakeside Drive Apt T-1 | Greenbelt, MD 20770 | I run picnic (FreeBSD-current) (301) 220-2114 | and jaunt (Solaris7). ----------------------------+----------------------------------------------- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message