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Date:      Wed, 7 Oct 1998 11:30:03 +0930
From:      Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
To:        Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com>, Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>
Cc:        Jerry Hicks <wghicks@bellsouth.net>, FreeBSD Chat <chat@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: RMS on UDI
Message-ID:  <19981007113003.G27781@freebie.lemis.com>
In-Reply-To: <361A6C34.4AD93BAE@softweyr.com>; from Wes Peters on Tue, Oct 06, 1998 at 01:15:00PM -0600
References:  <Your <199810060324.UAA01937@dingo.cdrom.com> <4.1.19981006085422.04379a10@mail.lariat.org> <361A6C34.4AD93BAE@softweyr.com>

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On Tuesday,  6 October 1998 at 13:15:00 -0600, Wes Peters wrote:
> Brett Glass wrote:
>>
>> At 12:03 AM 10/6/98 -0400, Jerry Hicks wrote:
>>
>>> So what is the attitude around FreeBSD toward UDI?  Not the concept, which
>>> nearly everyone agrees is a Good Thing, but this particular set of proposals
>>> from SCO, Intel, et al.
>>>
>>> I'm more than a little paranoid about I20 and suspicious of UDI too...
>>
>> As well we should be. However, the UDI spec is being distributed for free,
>> without a demand for large fees, and there really don't seem to be strings
>> attached. It seems sort of like the AT&T ABI specs in this regard. If so,
>> it's a Good Thing.
>
> If anything, it seems more like UDI is a plot created by SCO to get us
> "Open Source" developers to write device drivers for THEM.
>
> I personally have NO feelings whatsoever about this; anyone silly enough to
> use SCO when FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and Linux will ALL run on the same
> hardware deserve what they get.
>
> I share Brett's (and RMS' -- imagine THEM agreeing on something!)
> reservations about Intel's motivation in this.  I think most contributors
> to the free software community feel that commercial organizations should
> not benefit from free software unless they give something back.

Well, that's simple: put it under the GPL and they can't.  This is
really an argument against the Berkeley licence.

> If, however, this encourages Intel or any other hardware company to
> be more open with specifications and other documentation required to
> write drivers, they WILL be giving something back.  If Intel
> undertakes to develope UDI drivers for the various hardware products
> they produce, this will benefit FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Linux,
> SCO, Sun, and anyone else who uses UDI drivers.

Precisely.

Greg
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