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Date:      Tue, 06 Oct 1998 14:19:47 -0600
From:      Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>
To:        Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com>
Cc:        Jerry Hicks <wghicks@bellsouth.net>, FreeBSD Chat <chat@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: RMS on UDI
Message-ID:  <4.1.19981006141546.0430a1d0@mail.lariat.org>
In-Reply-To: <361A6C34.4AD93BAE@softweyr.com>
References:  <Your message of "Mon, 05 Oct 1998 20:24:07 PDT."             <199810060324.UAA01937@dingo.cdrom.com> <4.1.19981006085422.04379a10@mail.lariat.org>

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At 01:15 PM 10/6/98 -0600, Wes Peters wrote:
 
>I share Brett's (and RMS' -- imagine THEM agreeing on something!) 
>reservations about Intel's motivation in this.

Given what I now know about UDI, I don't have many reservations. It
looks like an open spec, akin to the AT&T ABIs.

RMS, however, thinks the whole CONCEPT of sharing drivers with 
non-open-source OSes is heresy. Especially if -- heaven forbid! --
the manufacturer doesn't supply source.

>It'll be interesting to see if Microsoft tries to horn in on this and sway
>the UDI spec into agreeing with NT as well.  There's somebody to be leery
>of, brothers and sisters.

Well, Microsoft drivers by nature are very different. They'd have to build
software "shims" which would slow the UDI drivers down. And you'd still need
special ".INF" files, etc.

So, I think Microsoft will just put more pressure on the hardware vendors to
make their hardware Microsoft-specific. They've already been successful with
many modems, scanners, and printers.

--Brett


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