From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Oct 5 13:25:08 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C3B451065673 for ; Tue, 5 Oct 2010 13:25:08 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mark@exonetric.com) Received: from relay0.exonetric.net (relay0.exonetric.net [82.138.248.161]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8D86C8FC19 for ; Tue, 5 Oct 2010 13:25:08 +0000 (UTC) Received: from markimac.fairfx.local (unknown [62.244.179.66]) by relay0.exonetric.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2C46C57022; Tue, 5 Oct 2010 14:25:07 +0100 (BST) Message-ID: <4CAB2731.9090502@exonetric.com> Date: Tue, 05 Oct 2010 14:25:05 +0100 From: Mark Blackman User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.1.13) Gecko/20100914 SeaMonkey/2.0.8 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Jon Radel References: <4CAB25B1.6050906@radel.com> In-Reply-To: <4CAB25B1.6050906@radel.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Which OS for notebook X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 05 Oct 2010 13:25:08 -0000 Jon Radel wrote: > I'm somewhat unclear on how that follows. Might it not be that many > manufacturers, busily dealing with Microsoft, and easing into Linux now > that it has significant "mindshare," have simply decided that there's no > economic benefit to releasing detailed hardware specs in a form that > works for FreeBSD developers? I really fail to see why you think the > fact that the manufacturer itself has released binary drivers for > Windows, and possibly Linux, and/or released hardware specs under NDA > (non-disclosure agreement) to certain business partners, has any bearing > on whether sufficient information to write a driver is available to any > FreeBSD programmer with permission to use it to write an open source > driver. There's also the whole train of thought that says FreeBSD isn't really aimed at the desktop/laptop/notebook use model and any benefit in that arena is entirely coincidental.