Date: Sun, 30 Oct 2011 09:48:08 -0400 From: Jerry <jerry@seibercom.net> To: FreeBSD <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Fast personal printing _without_ CUPS Message-ID: <20111030094808.2ab6b9fa@scorpio> In-Reply-To: <CADGWnjXXv1A4zgvO0eMwHkt6KzOAS-ZMuq3X31VtvpkpBbdB_w@mail.gmail.com> References: <20111028175401.17906e52@scorpio> <201110282227.p9SMR3HY075510@mail.r-bonomi.com> <20111029072824.76540c54@scorpio> <20111030082511.GA70628@orange.esperance-linux.co.uk> <20111030081349.603d9ecf@scorpio> <CADGWnjXXv1A4zgvO0eMwHkt6KzOAS-ZMuq3X31VtvpkpBbdB_w@mail.gmail.com>
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On Sun, 30 Oct 2011 13:59:58 +0100 C. P. Ghost articulated: > On Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 1:13 PM, Jerry <jerry@seibercom.net> wrote: > > The biggest loser in this is FreeBSD itself. Virtually any new PC or > > laptop, with the exception of the bargain basement brands, and even > > some of them are exempt, now come with "N" protocol wireless > > devices. > > Instead of devoting so much time and energy whining about the > problem here on-list, even though you know full well that we can't > do anything about it for known reasons... why won't you lobby the > manufacturers of "N" devices, so that they either open their specs, > so we can write a driver, or at least release binary blobs compatible > with FreeBSD? Wouldn't that be more productive? You're very > outspoken on some aspects, so put that rhetorical skill to good use > and contact the major wireless chipset vendors; and then follow up > with them if you don't get the reply you want, just as you do here > on-list. Seriously, are you so naive that you believe that his is the only venue I use to express my feeling on these matters? I have been pestering several corporations for over two years now. I have even spoken to several of their representatives, including a developer from Brother recently in regards to making drivers easily available to operating systems other than Microsoft, and usually a few flavors of Linux. The contact I had at Brother was actually a Linux user himself. In all cases, no matter what the device I was inquiring about was, the standard answer was that they -- meaning the OEM -- could not see any upside to investing in the development and maintenance of drivers for a community as fragmented as the non-windows frontier. A few actually told me to use Linux instead since they did offer some support for that architecture. One company, I believe it was Cisco, told me that FreeBSD does not support the system calls it needs to make its devices work correctly. I am not a system engineer and since he was talking above my head I just let it go. However, considering that nVidia had to wait years for FreeBSD to mature enough for it to get its drivers functional under this environment I can easily believe that there is more than a grain of truth to the statement. As for releasing technical details, etcetera, I was told point blank that such information was confidential and would not be released. Now that I can at least agree with. Unlike many socialists, I don't believe in working my ass off, spending X amount of dollars and then just giving my work away freely to every dirt bag to clone. I write several major vendors on a monthly basic. Sometimes even using different names so they might falsely believe that there is a larger base than actually exists to request support. Now, suppose you were to join me. Perhaps a few thousand other users, in other words all the FreeBSD base, and wrote on a bi-weekly schedule to a targeted vendor base requesting support. I will be happy to supply my own personal list and compile other pertinent vendor's names & address's as well. The only problem I see with this approach is maintaining continued group support. The tendency of people to just give up and quite is self evident. Now, as you might have noticed I don't suffer from that trait. It is the primary difference between an Alpha male and one who just bends over and takes it. In any event Ghost, contact me if you want to help, just don't expect to get any followers. -- Jerry ✌ jerry+fbsd@seibercom.net Disclaimer: off-list followups get on-list replies or ignored. Do not CC this poster. Please do not ignore the "Reply-To" header. http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
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