Date: Sun, 22 Oct 1995 19:47:24 -0700 From: "Russell L. Carter" <rcarter@geli.com> To: dennis@etinc.com (dennis) Cc: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: ISDN: Sync vs Async. Was: Bragging rights.. Message-ID: <199510230247.TAA04734@geli.clusternet> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 22 Oct 1995 22:33:16 EDT." <199510230233.WAA08448@etinc.com>
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There is a weird irony in this argument, given the fact that the OS is "FreeBSD", and consider what that "Free" in the name was supposed to mean, though it is lost on many. And, I guess I'll point out that it doesn't take a lot of time spent surfing http://www.bsdi.com to realize that sometimes "free" drivers work a lot better, and get to the users a *lot* faster... These are not very new differences of ah opinion, maybe it's up to each entity to decide what they want to do, but I don't know why it's important to thrash them here. Best regards, Russell > >> > >> > >> >BTW, I have a $1000 (minus possible taxes) reward available for the author > >> >of a free driver for a commonly available synchronous serial card like SDL, > >> >ET or Arnet. Ie. sources available and non-restrictive license (preferably > >> >both GPL and Berkey to allow it to be included both in Linux and *BSD*). > >> >Need to talk to ciscos (that is what usually is in the other end). Needs > >> > >> Add two 0's to this number and we can talk. > >> > >> We'll have it as part of our product very shortly, but....for the reasons > >> that you just stated, no "right to steal" licenses available. > >I do understand the fact that you've put so much work into your > >product's software.. > >but do you really think that if it were released in source, that it > >would negatively impact your sales? > >This is a serious question.. > >what do you think would happen? > >My expectation is that it would immediatly be ported to Lynx , OS9, > >and other OS's and become an industry standard.. not > >a bad place to be really. > > The technologies that we have (Frame Relay, X.25 sync PPP, etc) would > immediately be ported to less expensive boards, creating a price war > over hardware since none of you care about anything but cost. If it became > very popular then others would build similar boards.It wouldn't create any > markets, > since no-one uses a T1 board if they don't need it. No serious commercial > venture would use it anyway, because these types of products aren't like modems. > You need support, and no-one is going to bet their business on a driver > maintained by > some weeny part-time programmer in lower Mongolia. You also need a program, > and FreeBSD > doesn't have one. > > >. Have you considered releaseinf drivers for > >some small part of your product line as an experiment and watching > >what happens? > > I've considered releasing a "freeware" source version of our board drivers.... > No Frame Relay, No X.25, No Sync PPP, No Utilities).....but what is there to > gain? We're already > selling boards faster than we can build them. Who wants to sell 1,000 boards > at (Jordan's price > of) $150.? I believe that it would result in the cannabilization of the > business I already have. People > willing to pay will get it cheaper, and the really cheap and stupid will > still go out and buy $700. junk > routers (or soup up their async boards to do higher speeds!) > > In 1991, Western Digital was selling 20,000 Ethernet boards a month, which > was unbelievable at the time. Whats more unbelivable is that they were losing > money. > > Communism failed for a reason, you know. > > db > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Emerging Technologies, Inc. http://www.etinc.com > > Synchronous Communications Cards and Routers For > Discriminating Tastes. 56k to T1 and beyond. Frame > Relay, PPP, HDLC, and X.25 > >
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