linux-kernel - Re: Free Linux Driver Development!

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Date:	Wed, 31 Jan 2007 11:17:36 -0800 (PST)
From:	alan <alan@...eserver.org>
To:	Jan Engelhardt <jengelh@...ux01.gwdg.de>
cc:	Roland Dreier <rdreier@...co.com>, Greg KH <greg@...ah.com>,
	Jeff Garzik <jeff@...zik.org>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Free Linux Driver Development!

On Wed, 31 Jan 2007, Jan Engelhardt wrote:

>
> On Jan 31 2007 09:58, alan wrote:
>> On Wed, 31 Jan 2007, Jan Engelhardt wrote:
>>> On Jan 30 2007 14:00, Roland Dreier wrote:
>>>>
>>>> An uncharitable vendor might decide it's not worth publishing specs,
>>>> since the Linux guys can reverse engineer the Windows driver just as
>>>> fast anyway.
>>>
>>> And ndiswrapper gives fire to just releasing the Windows one :(
>>
>> ndiswrapper is a way to make it work "now" as opposed to "correct".
>> There is a lot that you cannot do with ndiswrapper that a proper driver
>> can.
>
> The fear is that a vendor might not open things because it works
> "reasonably enough" (for them as well as the enduser) at "this time".
> E.g. I got sis162u.inf for some usb wireless adapter, it works
> enough, but of course I am not too happy with the binary blob because
> it might have some not-so-"correct" core that could silently oops me
> away.

Of course, the vendors need to realize that such problems will be blamed 
on the hardware and not on the drivers.  "But I was using the Windows 
drivers!"

-- 
"Invoking the supernatural can explain anything, and hence explains nothing."
                   - University of Utah bioengineering professor Gregory Clark
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