Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 12:39:56 -0600 From: "Michael C . Wu" <keichii@iteration.net> To: Dennis <dennis@etinc.com> Cc: Boris <koester@x-itec.de>, Murray Stokely <murray@osd.bsdi.com>, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD vs Linux, Solaris, and NT Message-ID: <20001219123956.A30283@peorth.iteration.net> In-Reply-To: <5.0.0.25.0.20001219111044.020739e0@mail.etinc.com>; from dennis@etinc.com on Tue, Dec 19, 2000 at 11:43:17AM -0500 References: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0012181442290.25125-100000@pike.osd.bsdi.com> <Pine.BSF.4.21.0012181442290.25125-100000@pike.osd.bsdi.com> <16785804580.20001219030629@x-itec.de> <5.0.0.25.0.20001219111044.020739e0@mail.etinc.com>
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On Tue, Dec 19, 2000 at 11:43:17AM -0500, Dennis scribbled: | | >Device Drivers | >-------------- | >I donīt like binary only device drivers. The code of an operating | >system is more complex than a driver. if a company does not want to | >publish the sourcecode, the should go away. | | You've lost all credibility here. Well supported device drivers should not No, he is simply stating his opinion. In addition, a well supported should include both the source *and* the binary. At least one of the reasons would be that customers who have top of the line drivers may wish to customize the behavior of the hardware. | require source. I'd prefer a commercial (preferably the manufacters) Have you ever used Realtek stock drivers on Win32? Have you tried to find a Neomagic driver on Win2K? Have you tried to find a driver for Solaris? Let's even see you try to use the newest Intel fxp0 driver for win32 and lose old functions. | support other than some guy in the ural mountains who fixes things IF he | can get a card with a problem and IF he can duplicate the problem and IF | hes a good enough coder to get it done. | | case and point: How many of us are sitting on our hands waiting for DG to | have time to fix the latest snafu in the if_fxp driver? You cant blame him | for having a job and earning a living, but the fact is that only he has | enough experience with the part to do the job. We all have source, but who | wants to spend a couple of weeks learning the intricacies of a very complex | part to fix what amounts to a very small bug? Many of us do. | You NEED source in linux and freebsd and the like because manufacturers | dont support their cards for these OSs and the drivers are a continuous | work in progress. Drivers are fixed only AFTER a problem with a new | revision part is encountered, which undermines a companies abiltiy to do | its work and to have confidence that they will have a solution in the future. If you don't like it, please don't use it. | I'd take a driver disk with a binary driver with each shipment of cards ANY | DAY over having to cross my fingers that the current FreeBSD driver works | with them. They work perfectly. On my systems, I could not get a good Brooktree driver for Win32. FreeBSD works fine. My Intel 82559 cards work fine. The newest Win2K Orinoco Wavelan driver cannot do ad-hoc mode, | Drivers written in linux and freebsd, for example, are often "guesses" of | how things work because exact documents are not available. The concept that No, we read datasheets like everybody else. | some programmer, as good as he may be, working in his spare time on a | driver without full documentation is more desirable than code provided by | the manufacturer is so short-sighted that is illustrates that the author | has no concept of reality. In that case, why are you using it? | "hacker mentality" is not mainstream. 98% of people dont have a clue what | to do with source code. They want products that just work. Your Yes, FreeBSD just works. | recommendation, if you make such a recommendation regarding "source over | binary", suits your own requirements and not that of your client or readers | and shows very poor judgement. So does yours. -- +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | keichii@peorth.iteration.net | keichii@bsdconspiracy.net | | http://peorth.iteration.net/~keichii | Yes, BSD is a conspiracy. | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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