Re: Linux, UDI and SCO.

Rik van Riel (H.H.vanRiel@phys.uu.nl)
Mon, 21 Sep 1998 14:02:37 +0200 (CEST)


On Fri, 18 Sep 1998, Gregory Maxwell wrote:
> On 18 Sep 1998, david parsons wrote:
>
> > If a project will make Unix a more viable alternative to the other
> > operating systems, it's A Good Thing
>
> I disagree. It's important that the users win, and they arn't winning if
> you give hardware companies more excuses to sell closed hardware.

Closed hardware doesn't have to mean bad drivers, if it did
the closed hardware would always perform worst in benchmarks
and it would loose sales points as well.

> Closed hardware is bad, very few will disagree. It needs to stop now.
> Until this UDI crap came around I was very confident that it would be gone
> in my lifetime. No I'm not so sure.

With or without UDI, closed hardware will stay around. It's
just that we will be able to use closed hardware now, just
like the users of the Unmentionable system. But if closed
drivers _are_ crap, then you're free to buy a device with
free driver code. If we vote with our wallets, the outcome
will be the same with or without UDI...

Rik.
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