Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 23:26:43 -0800 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> To: <danial_thom@yahoo.com>, "Dick Davies" <rasputnik@gmail.com>, <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: RE: FreeBSD vs Linux Message-ID: <LOBBIFDAGNMAMLGJJCKNCEFBFDAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com> In-Reply-To: <20060118165339.78047.qmail@web33314.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
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>-----Original Message----- >From: owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org >[mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org]On Behalf Of Danial Thom >Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 8:54 AM >To: Dick Davies; freebsd-questions@freebsd.org >Subject: Re: FreeBSD vs Linux > > > >> > Microsoft pays hardware manufacturers to >> > make drivers for their OS, >> >> I seriously doubt it. They don't need to with >> their market share. > >Ok, what do you guys live in a shoe or something? >For pete's sake, how can so many people be so >patently clueless and still be able to find food >and shelter? Do you really have no idea how >things work? Are you really so brainwashed by the >geeky liberals that you have lost your ability to >think? > >MS doesn't have to "pay" vendors, you toad. >Vendors write drivers for windows because the >market is substantial Actually, it's a lot worse than that, most times. The vendors usually aren't the ones that write drivers, it is the chipset manufacturers that usually write a stock driver that they supply with the chipset, with the idea that the vendor is supposed to use this as an example of how the chipset it to be handled when they write their own driver. All to often, though, the vendor merely repackages the chipset manufacturer's example driver. > >Vendors don't write drivers for freebsd because: > >1) the market is too small >2) Some don't want to release source, as they'll >lose more to taiwanese cloners than they will >make selling to 'nix users. >3) X sucks, so why risk having people badmouth >your cards? > Some of this is true but most of the reason is merely that the chipset manufacturers don't write the drivers so there's nothing for the vendor to repackage. And the chipset manufacturers only write a single driver for the largest OS in market share simply because their customers (the card vendors) won't buy the chipsets if an example driver doesen't exist, and to the chipset manufacturer, every single scrap of time spent writing a driver is wasted effort, whether the driver is for Windows or some other OS. If you actually go out and buy decent quality hardware that costs more money, where the vendors do in fact just use the chipset maker-supplied driver as a base to work from, you will find drivers for lots of different non-Windows operating systems. But you won't find that hardware in the bargin bin at Fry's. Ted
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