Re: Linux Incompatibility List

From: Jonathan Bastien-Filiatrault
Date: Sat Aug 21 2004 - 20:33:40 EST


Lee Revell wrote:

On Sat, 2004-08-21 at 16:20, Wakko Warner wrote:


Ideas/comments/suggestions are welcome at this stage.


Sounds interesting; is there a vendor blacklist (i.e. vendors that are
either hostile toward or simply don't care about Linux and their products
just won't ever work with Linux?)


Broadcom's wireless chips come to mind...



Nvidia. AFAIK all nvidia Linux drivers are either binary-only or
reverse-engineered.

To add insult to injury they have a stupid 20+page 'Nvidia Linux
Advantage' whitepaper on their site that conveniently fails to mention
the above. They probably spent more money for some marketroid to put
that together than they ever spent on actually supporting Linux.


Vendors should understand that ACTUALLY supporting linux means adopting the free software philosophy. In many cases, vendors think that they should be the only one to be able to write drivers, since 99% of desktop users dont care about their software freedom. Vendors should not try to obscure the workings of their devices, they should show the world how they are innovating in hardware design by releasing specs on a freely-redistributable basis. This would greatly improve competiveness and innovation in the domain of hardware design. Give me a binary driver and i will buy from you once, give me the specs and i'll appreciate the effort you put in designing the device.
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