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Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 11:04:39 -0500 (EST)
From: "Mark H. Wood" <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>
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Subject: Re: Kernel module ethics.
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On Thu, 28 Feb 2002, Helge Hafting wrote:
[much snipped]
> Generally, the more open the better.  Keep in mind that buying
> hw that needs a closed-source driver is something we do _only_ when
> no competing product with a GPL driver exist.  Your competitors
> might go the GPL way even if you don't.  Many users of closed drivers
> do so because they converted a machine from windows to linux.
> If they buy specifically for linux, they buy something well-supported.
> And the ideal then is a driver in the official tree.  The second
> best is a open source driver that might get into the tree - it just
> hasn't happened yet.  A closed driver at least initiates a web search
> for other harware...

I want to underscore this.  I don't buy hardware until I know that it's
possible to *keep* it running with Linux.  If the driver is closed-source,
I'll buy something else or do without.  Secret magic firmware would be
grudgingly accepted, but only if there isn't a comparable product with no
secrets.

-- 
Mark H. Wood, Lead System Programmer   mwood@IUPUI.Edu
Our lives are forever changed.  But *that* is exactly as it always was.

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