Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 10:14:41 -0800 From: "Jeremiah Gowdy" <jgowdy@home.com> To: "Poul-Henning Kamp" <phk@critter.freebsd.dk>, "Dennis" <dennis@etinc.com> Cc: <freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: FreeBSD vs Linux, Solaris, and NT Message-ID: <001401c069e7$8ed5c4f0$aa240018@cx443070b> References: <Your message of "Tue, 19 Dec 2000 11:43:17 EST." <5.0.0.25.0.20001219111044.020739e0@mail.etinc.com> <5.0.0.25.0.20001219120619.020cbac0@mail.etinc.com>
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> >>Device Drivers > >>-------------- > >>I donīt like binary only device drivers. The code of an operating > >>system is more complex than a driver. if a company does not want to > >>publish the sourcecode, the should go away. Dennis said: /* I didnt "praise" closed source. I said there is arguable reasoning behind preferring supported binary drivers that work over incomplete source drivers. Selecting an OS based solely on this criteria is just plain stupid. Drivers generally do not require changes unless they are buggy. And the general public is generally no capable of maintaining a card driver with intricate knowledge of the controllers, which is no simple task. We have a saying in the US. "communism failed because its very essence breeds mediocrity". Your inabiltity to understand a business model that includes protecting corporate-funded assets, when MOST of the world's corporations adhere exclusively to such a model, shows how little you know about business in general. Your stupidity is also is emphasized by the fact that no major manufacturer has supported drivers for freebsd. Intel wont even help by providing docs. Bravo. What a WIN for the freebsd community. You've done a tremendous job marketing your concept. */ Well spoken Dennis. I must agree. While the open source concept is great, and we would PREFER that companies release open sourced drivers, I would prefer a binary driver from the company over a driver that someone in the freebsd camp put together based on whatever reverse engineering he could pull off. Not that I don't appreciate the work of the people who write BSD drivers, the people who put time and effort into BSD drivers are some of my favorite people in the world, but it's terribly obvious that if a card or device is not documented, that the company is going to provide a better binary driver than what a BSD programmer could put together (okay, broad generalization, but I'll stand by it in most cases). The closed source business model still lives, and hardware manufacturers cannot see why they should have to give out their source code. They hardly see the need to provide drivers for non-Microsoft operating systems, much less open sourced drivers. I'm afraid we're not quite in the position to make demands on hardware companies. If we establish a relationship with them, and represent ourselves as respectable professionals, this will ease the transition, and perhaps someday after using the binary versions of their drivers, we ask them to open the source. The statement "if a company does not want to publish the sourcecode, the(y) should go away." is the most foolish thing I've heard in a long time. The first step in moving up the ladder is realizing what rung you're currently standing on. If FreeBSD were to "boycott" or intentionally fail to support any particular hardware, the only losers would be us. If the Linux kiddies want to be the rabid open sourcers, and make demands of big companies fine. If they succeed, so do we (open source to them is open source to us). :) Why should both communities look like rabid idiots ? We can play the more calm professional role, like we usually do, and take either binaries or open source. Eventually, hopefully, the hardware manufacturers will come around and open up the source code on drivers. But if you're the kind of guy who wouldn't use a newer faster FreeBSD Adaptec SCSI driver because it's binary only, then that puts you in a class of people I like to refer to as 'rabid open source idiots'. I prefer to use the best of both worlds. And try to think a little bit if you can, when it comes to hardware manufacturers, who certainly see them selves ALOT higher on the ladder than we are, perhaps honey will get you more driver support than vinegar. :) Jeremiah Gowdy Network Administrator Sherline Products To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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