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Message-ID: <84144f020512060731w36e01d2cm8200920fdabe13df@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 6 Dec 2005 17:31:54 +0200
From: Pekka Enberg <penberg@cs.helsinki.fi>
To: Aimo Asiakas <aimo.asiakas@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Linux in a binary world... a doomsday scenario
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
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Hi,

On 12/6/05, Aimo Asiakas <aimo.asiakas@hotmail.com> wrote:
> But what do the desktop customers (the ones who should start using Linux)
> expect? We would expect that Linux works with the hardware we have or
> whatever we decide to buy. And more important we expect that the
> applications we need are available for Linux. Do we care about hackers'
> right to free hardware information? No. This means that we users are
> complete morons and we should be brainwashed to realize how cool thing Linux
> is.

As Arjan said, this is not about the developers, it is about all of
us. While you're not interested in the availability of hardware
documentation, surely you do care if you can still run free software
on your machine in two years from now? Closed hardware documentation
means that you have to rely on your vendor to update the driver which
is not in their interest if they have a new product out which they
want you to buy. Nor will the driver be updated if the vendor has gone
out of business.

See, if you want to be able to walk in the store and buy whatever you
want and have it work on Linux (or any other open source kernel for
that matter), you're absolutely in favor of open hardware
documentation. You just haven't realized it yet.

                                   Pekka
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