What if Hardware Vendors are Trapped Too?
Submitted by srlinuxx on Mon, 01/29/2007 - 19:09.
Want some frustration? Buy a piece of hardware with “Linux support” and try to use it on anything besides x86 GNU/Linux. If you’re fortunate enough to choose a device for which there exists free drivers, you’ll have much more luck. Often, recompiling is all that’s necessary–and if you use a modern distribution, you may not even have to compile it yourself.
Otherwise, you may be in for days of fun trying to explain that the Linux kernel and almost any piece of software you can run on x86 works just fine on PPC, or that FreeBSD or OpenSolaris or all of the other open and stable free operating systems can do much the same.
It’s easy to make the argument that supporting multiple operating systems and hardware platforms with source code (or better, specifications) requires little work on the part of hardware vendors. I’ve made just that argument. Customers don’t pay for drivers–we pay for the hardware.
Some companies do release open drivers and, perhaps more importantly, open specifications for their hardware. These vendors deserve tremendous praise.
What about the other vendors?
Linux: Free Linux Driver Development
"The Linux kernel community is offering all companies free Linux driver development," Greg Kroah-Hartman posted in an open offer on the lkml, for all types of devices "from USB toys to PCI video devices to high-speed networking cards." He explains, "all that is needed is some kind of specification that describes how your device works, or the email address of an engineer that is willing to answer questions every once in a while. A few sample devices might be good to have so that debugging doesn't have to be done by email, but if necessary, that can be done."
Full Story.