Message-ID: <441554D4.7030706@aitel.hist.no>
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 12:17:40 +0100
From: Helge Hafting <helge.hafting@aitel.hist.no>
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To: Jan Knutar <jk-lkml@sci.fi>
CC: Tim Tassonis <timtas@cubic.ch>, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [future of drivers?] a proposal for binary drivers.
References: <440F4C80.6070907@cubic.ch> <200603090220.50378.jk-lkml@sci.fi>
In-Reply-To: <200603090220.50378.jk-lkml@sci.fi>
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Jan Knutar wrote:

>On Wednesday 08 March 2006 23:28, Tim Tassonis wrote:
>
>  
>
>>OS/2 died exactly because software companies didn't write closed-source 
>>software, hardware companies didn't write closed-source drivers, and IBM 
>>couldn't write it all themselves.
>>    
>>
>
>I read somewhere that the development kit was obscenely expensive and
>effectively locked out all hobbyists and small companies.
>
IBM stuff may have been expensive.
There was gcc for os/2 though, which was nice for hobbyists.
The way I remember it, drivers wasn't the big problem.  The lack of drivers
could have become a problem if the lack of software was solved.  But it
wasn't - no need to drive a device for which you don't have an app . . .

Having gcc meant one could port some gpl software, which usually
originated on linux or other unixes.  But using such software on
linux was always easier, and so I switched os.

Helge Hafting
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