Re: [LONG RANT] Re: Linux stifles innovation...

Jes Sorensen (jes@linuxcare.com)
19 Feb 2001 15:15:25 +0100


>>>>> "Jeff" == Jeff Garzik <jgarzik@mandrakesoft.com> writes:

Jeff> On Mon, 19 Feb 2001, Werner Almesberger wrote:
>> Now what's at stake ? Look at the Windows world. Also there,
>> companies could release their drivers as Open Source. Quick, how
>> many do this ? Almost none. So, given the choice, most companies
>> have defaulted to closed source. Consistently complaining when a
>> company tries to release only closed source drivers for Linux seems
>> to generally have the desired effect of making them change their
>> policy.

Jeff> FWIW, -every single- Windows driver source code I've seen has
Jeff> been bloody awful. Asking them to release that code would
Jeff> probably result in embarrassment. Same reasoning why many
Jeff> companies won't release hardware specifications... The internal
Jeff> docs are bad. Really bad.

Trust me, commercial UNIX drivers aren't any better.

Jes
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