Re: Linux, UDI and SCO.
kwrohrer@ce.mediaone.net
Mon, 21 Sep 1998 11:06:47 -0500 (CDT)
And lo, Stephen Landamore saith unto me:
>
> At the moment, I am doing some driver writing with full cooperation from
> the manufacturer. What happened is that we approached them saying
> something along the lines of: "is a Linux driver available, and if not
> we'll offer to write one". They replied "there isn't, we'd love one but
> we don't have the resources to do it, here's some info, away you go"
>
> I think the key here is enlightenment. These guys are enlightened, one
> of THEIR requirements is that OUR code be GPL'd !!!
Of course. Wouldn't want to not learn from your work (if you're smarter
and/or know Linux better than their people) or not be able to give your
work out if someone else called up and wanted a Linux driver.
> We just need to convince EVERY manufacturer that they want to support
> Linux, with our cooperation. If we offer to write a driver for them
> everyone benefits. We get native support, they get a driver written for
> them (for free!) and an expanded user base... remind them that they make
> money from selling UNITS, not from shipping driver updates :-)
But someone else writing a driver for them is *NOT* zero-cost. It takes
sending out the documentation, maybe answering questions if the docs
they send aren't clear enough for you, and every time they change their
hardware enough to require a driver change, tracking you down and giving
you updated data. These things all take employee time, and therefore
(especially in these days of high turnover and consequent understaffing)
take $$ to do.
However, your basic point is (I hope) correct: them taking the time to
give you what you need to write and maintain a driver should be more
than made up for by increased sales once a driver is available, esp.
if you push the driver's existence out to the appropriate HOWTOs
(Hardware, and the subsystem-specific HOWTO, e.g. SCSI or Ethernet)
so people who look will know it's compatible.
Keith
--
"The avalanche has already started; |Linux: http://www.linuxhq.com |"Zooty,
it is too late for the pebbles to |KDE: http://www.kde.org | zoot
vote." Kosh, "Believers", Babylon 5 |Keith: kwrohrer@enteract.com | zoot!"
www.midwinter.com/lurk/lurker.html |http://www.enteract.com/~kwrohrer | --Rebo
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