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Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:20:57 -0500
From: Theodore Tso <tytso@mit.edu>
To: Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
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Subject: Re: Developing non-commercial drivers ?
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On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 07:29:42PM +0000, Alan Cox wrote:
> 
> Not entirely. There are several reasons this may occur
> - They could have something genuinely new - unlikely to be honest
> - They could think they have something genuinely new but don't
> - They may not yet have filed some relevant patent applications in which
> case they have to worry about secrecy
> 
> and other reasons.
> 

If I had to guess, they're probably doing some kind variant of TCP,
Crypto, or some other kind of networking offland trick.  There really
isn't much else you can do that might be considered new in an ethernet
controller.  And it's probably not new.

> Probably they should talk to the Linux Foundation. I'm not sure that
> assuming they are clueless is the first step. Understanding the problem
> as they see it is more important and probably something the Linux
> Foundation can help with and under a business to business framework.

Well, I'm from the Linux Foundation, and I'm here to help.  :-)

Seriously, if they are willing to talk to someone, we're certainly
willing to give them some free advice.  My guess is that's not very
likely, however.

						- Ted

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