Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2006 16:48:52 -0300 (ADT) From: User Freebsd <freebsd@hub.org> To: Darrin Chandler <dwchandler@stilyagin.com> Cc: Nikolas Britton <nikolas.britton@gmail.com>, FreeBSD Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Are hardware vendors starting to bail on FreeBSD ... ? Message-ID: <20060726164622.Q17979@ganymede.hub.org> In-Reply-To: <20060726190108.GE5284@jeeves.stilyagin.local> References: <20060726032544.4CA2643D70@mx1.FreeBSD.org> <20060726123204.C17979@ganymede.hub.org> <ef10de9a0607260944w6d83a327sa9c15faf30dd071d@mail.gmail.com> <20060726153515.I17979@ganymede.hub.org> <20060726190108.GE5284@jeeves.stilyagin.local>
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On Wed, 26 Jul 2006, Darrin Chandler wrote: > On Wed, Jul 26, 2006 at 03:36:51PM -0300, User Freebsd wrote: >> On Wed, 26 Jul 2006, Nikolas Britton wrote: >> >>> * No binary blob drivers. >> >> This is one that I don't necessarily agree with ... if Adaptec came out >> with a *supported* iir driver, but it was binary only, I'd be happy with >> that ... I just want to know that if I *have* a problem with a piece of >> hardware, that I can get support for it ... > > A lot of people agree with you, but I'm not one of them. It's not about > you being inconvenienced in this particular case. It's about choice, and > vendors supporting the customers by providing *specs*. > > What if they provide a blob for FreeBSD but you decide you want to run > NetBSD on a particular machine and there's no blob? Or much more likely: > what if they provide a blob for Linux, but not for FreeBSD? Should they > also provide a blob for Plan 9? > > If the specs are not open, then your choices are limited to what the > vendor wants to develop and support. And that's likely to be Windows, > and maybe Linux, and maybe maybe FreeBSD. > > OTOH, if the vendor opens the specs then good, solid drivers can be > written for whatever platform. And ported. And if there's a problem it > can be fixed. This even turns out to benefit people who don't give a > hoot about whether something is "free" or "open" or not. My point isn't that I *liked* binary-only drivers ... my point is that I'd rather a company like Adaptec to *at least* supply a binary driver if they require their specs to be closed, then provide *no means* for me to use Adaptec products ... Right now, I personally am being hurt more by having *nothing* from Adaptec, binary or open, then I would be if they'd provide something binary, since under 4.x, the Adaptec driver *was* rock solid, so I felt pretty safe upgrading to 6.x, which turns out was not so smart a move ... How many out there are *still* running 4.x on their servers and desktops, for similar fears? ---- Marc G. Fournier Hub.Org Networking Services (http://www.hub.org) Email . scrappy@hub.org MSN . scrappy@hub.org Yahoo . yscrappy Skype: hub.org ICQ . 7615664
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