Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2000 14:27:08 -0800 From: Mike Smith <msmith@freebsd.org> To: Narvi <narvi@haldjas.folklore.ee> Cc: Dennis <dennis@etinc.com>, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Dennis' inability to fix the eepro driver Message-ID: <200003112227.OAA05768@mass.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sat, 11 Mar 2000 21:49:12 %2B0200." <Pine.BSF.3.96.1000311214630.13688Y-100000@haldjas.folklore.ee>
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> [snip - paying a dropout $100/h to fix drivers] > > > Another point is that Open Source is virtually synonomous with "Totally > > undocumented". The linux community, years into it, are still totally > > dependent on Alan Cox to fix drivers properly (mostly because the OS is > > completely undocumented and changes are made on a whim regularly). D. > > Becker continues to be the only one that can properly fix the ethernet > > drivers because they are such a mess and poorly documented. > > Why haven't you considered hiring somebody to document the parts you are > intersted in? Would solve at least half the problem... To be fair to Dennis, it's not the cost of paying the dropout to fix this driver that's at issue here. Documentation for the eepro parts is not easy to get; I only have one outdated hardcopy, and I get all sorts of weird stuff thrown at me. However, to the best of anyone's knowledge the driver isn't actually broken per se. There are a number of reported cases where it's unhappy in a given system setup, but it's actually characterising these cases that's the problem. What Dennis fails to point out here is that at least we're going to admit this in public. You won't get this concession from your average closed-shop vendor. 8) -- \\ Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. \\ Mike Smith \\ Tell him he should learn how to fish himself, \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ and he'll hate you for a lifetime. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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