Theo wrote a letter at large to the open source community urging us to take a stand. In the letter Theo provides information on how to contact Intel and helpful hints on how to explain benefits of open documentation to any vendor.
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2005-07-12
>> My personal case is even worse : no hardware I own
>> worked as well on Windows (98 and XP) as they do on
>> Linux, some aren't even supported on WinXP.
Guhugafugah?!?!? Now, I don't mean to say my BS alarm is going off - but WHAT?!?
Ok, I need details on this one, as that has to be THE MOST NONSENSICAL THING I'VE EVER HEARD. What are you doing, futzing around with ISA cards or something? Own nothing but SparcStations??? Own nothing but apple hardware?
Trying to wrap my head around this one...
Edited 2006-10-02 17:54
Member since:2005-11-14
That's because you still live in your ideal world where Windows works every time without any problem, where every app works out of the box and as advertised, where all hardware have drivers.
Well, I'll just give you the hardware names out of the top of my hat : mustek 12000 SP driver (SCSI scanner), an old TV card (by a company bought by Hauppauge I think, can't remember the name), serial gamepad adapter.
And the scanner was always stuttering under Windows 9x, I thought it was normal. When I switched to Linux in 2001, it scanned flawlessly and smoothly.
Strange that reality is nonsensical to you, though, you must be really young in computing.
Member since:2005-11-13
That's assuming it will work on your OS out of the box because you have the driver. My experience show me that most of the time, the driver DOES NOT work well with the hardware. I would go as far as to say that the driver NEVER works well in Windows. So no, you know you will have a driver, you don't know if it will work at all.
Well, it depends. A bad driver is a bad driver, no matter what OS you're using. But there are a lot of devices out there that work flawlessly. I generally tend to only purchase quality drivers, so if you spend $10 on a new video card, you're pretty much gonna get what you pay for. I doubt the drivers would be any better in Linux is they bothered to write one.
My personal case is even worse : no hardware I own worked as well on Windows (98 and XP) as they do on Linux, some aren't even supported on WinXP.
Ya know, I keep hearing how much better Linux works with hardware, but if that's the case, why is it that so many people are on here bitching about it?
Are they really dumbasses ? I don't think so. People who can write their own driver sure enough are not dumbasses, and most don't do it just because they can.
Most get a high benefit from doing it.
Well, even if I could write my own drivers, I don't think I would, unless I were being paid to do so. Life is too short that kind of thing.
Member since:
2005-11-14
Well, it only sucks for those on the 'other platforms', but for the rest of us, it's pretty sweet knowing that if a piece of hardware were released tomorrow, there's a 99% chance it'll work on our OS right out of the box
That's assuming it will work on your OS out of the box because you have the driver. My experience show me that most of the time, the driver DOES NOT work well with the hardware. I would go as far as to say that the driver NEVER works well in Windows. So no, you know you will have a driver, you don't know if it will work at all.
Feel free to show me even 1 product which only had one driver, or no updated driver with fixes for critical flaws.
My personal case is even worse : no hardware I own worked as well on Windows (98 and XP) as they do on Linux, some aren't even supported on WinXP.
Saying that it's pretty sweet on your platform is a very short sightened view too.
I mean, if there are dumbasses out there who are willing to work for free and write their own drivers, who am I to deny them of the privilege ?
Are they really dumbasses ? I don't think so. People who can write their own driver sure enough are not dumbasses, and most don't do it just because they can.
Most get a high benefit from doing it.