Here's the response from Promise on the FastTrak controller... Not too
promising.
Perhaps an ongoing diplomacy effort would sway some opinions...
-Reeves
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From: "Promise Technical Support" <support@promise.com>
To: "'J. Reeves Hall'" <reeves@earthling.net>
Subject: RE: FastTrak in Linux
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 16:11:13 -0700
Organization: Promise Technology, Inc.
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Thank you for your input. This argument has been made many times before,
but I will forward the message anyway. Currently, there are no plans to
release the source code for the FastTrak controller.
Matthew Hawk
Promise Technical Support
-----Original Message-----
From: J. Reeves Hall [SMTP:reeves@earthling.net]
Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 1999 9:00 AM
To: support@promise.com
Subject: FastTrak in Linux
The FastTrak is a really neat board (I had the opportunity to experiment
with one last summer at work), and I'd like to be able to recommend it
and use it, but there are currently no Linux drivers for it... I realize
that companies often feel the need to keep their specifications secret,
but in many cases that does more harm than good... Namely by shutting
out the 10 million Linux users in the world. I noticed that there are
plans to provide Red Hat Linux drivers for the FastTrak. That's a very
good thing, but please don't forget the other distributions. If you
choose to release your source code to the Linux kernel development team,
your drivers will be integrated into the constantly-evolving kernel and
will be maintained. That would allow any Linux user to immediately use
your FastTrak boards without switching distributions or messing with a
binary-only driver. It would also harness the combined brainpower of a
large number of kernel experts, which very well might result in
performance gains and improved compatibility. Linux RAID solutions are
currently either very expensive or software-based... Promise could
really nail this market :)
FastTrak is great... Windows NT is not. Please keep Linux's interests in
mind.
Thanks!
-Reeves Hall
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