Henrik Storner wrote:
> Forgive me for intruding on the technical discussions here
You're forgiven (at least by me), and I think thisis a good place to ask.
> ...
> Personally, I cannot see the big, conceptual difference between a
> binary module that contains "firmware", and a binary module that
> contains the equivalent of firmware, but is executed by the host CPU
> rather than some embedded processor.
Well, it goes like this. If I buy a chunk of hardware thathas "firmware"
downloaded into it, I'm reasonably sure that
not much will change. I'm not going to be changing the
chunk of hardware.
Now, if I buy your stuff (Olicom's), and I choose to use
your driver method - where the library is executed by the
host CPU (and let's not quibble here, it is a library,
nothing at all like firmware). What do I do when I want
to run a different CPU? How in the world do I recompile
the library so the new and different (presumably better)
CPU can execute it? I can't. I'm reliant on you (Olicom)
to do that.
The big conceptual difference is one of perception, and
of who owns what, and what one can do with what one owns
and what one doesn't own. Just my opinion.
>
>
> In a wider perspective, a hardware vendor who wants to support Linux
> currently has three options:
>
> 1) Release hardware specs and let someone write a driver.
> 2) Write a driver himself and release it in binary form only.
> 3) Provide an API for dealing with the hardware, and have someone
> develop a driver based on this API (the "Olicom" way).
2B) Write a driver himself and release it in source form
You are a hardware vendor, aren't you? Do you want to sell more of
your olicom cards, or do you want to sell software?
> I've always thought of the Linux community to be rather pragmatic -
> the "if it's useful and doesn't bother anything else, let us have it"
> approach. So I hope this can generate a useful debate, and is not shot
> down immediately with a "we want full source, or nothing" statement.
>
> But even if you are not quite as pragmatic as I thought, Linux is
> still a beautiful OS.
And, having said that - I think you'll sell (or continue to) your cards,
and people will happily download stuff from your web site and use it all.
I would. And I happen to know where there is an Olicom TR card lying
around here. The only question is what cpu does your library run on...
-Dan
-- Dan A. Dickey http://www.transition.com/ mailto:ddickey@transition.com
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