From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932359AbVHHXaB (ORCPT ); Mon, 8 Aug 2005 19:30:01 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S932360AbVHHXaB (ORCPT ); Mon, 8 Aug 2005 19:30:01 -0400 Received: from emailhub.stusta.mhn.de ([141.84.69.5]:2321 "HELO mailout.stusta.mhn.de") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id S932359AbVHHXaA (ORCPT ); Mon, 8 Aug 2005 19:30:00 -0400 Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2005 01:29:57 +0200 From: Adrian Bunk To: Lee Revell Cc: abonilla@linuxwireless.org, "'Andreas Steinmetz'" , "'Arjan van de Ven'" , "'Denis Vlasenko'" , "'linux-kernel'" Subject: Re: Wireless support Message-ID: <20050808232957.GR4006@stusta.de> References: <005501c59c4a$f6210800$a20cc60a@amer.sykes.com> <1123528018.15269.44.camel@mindpipe> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <1123528018.15269.44.camel@mindpipe> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.9i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Mon, Aug 08, 2005 at 03:06:58PM -0400, Lee Revell wrote: > On Mon, 2005-08-08 at 12:56 -0600, Alejandro Bonilla wrote: > > Again, the point is that ndiswrapper is a great project, but people > > uses it for the leftovers! We *shouldn't* buy leftovers or from Manuf > > that don't care about Linux. > > If you are always speccing out new systems then of course, but in the > real world I have some customers who need to dual boot and ideally it > would work on their existing hardware. Linux is a harder sell if people > need to replace a lot of their gear. That's the advantage of such drivers. I see at least two disadvantages: First, it doesn't encourage hardware manufacturers to support open source development. Linux has only a small market share, but it's slowly growing. Linux driver support does sometimes influence the decision which hardware to buy. With NdisWrapper, the hardware manufacturer can say: "Our hardware is supported through the open source NdisWrapper." Without NdisWrapper, they will sometimes hear that people did choose to buy hardware from a different hardware manufacturer that has a Linux driver. This can make the hardware manufacturer more friendly towards open source development (e.g. by providing hardware specs). Secondly, binary-only drivers have an impact on the stability of the Linux kernel. E.g. during the last years the nvidia has produced relatively many kernel crashes - and I doubt that binary-only drivers for Windows are much better in this respect. The users only see their kernel crashing blaming the Linux kernel and harming the reputation of the stability of Linux. > Lee cu Adrian -- "Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days. "Only a promise," Lao Er said. Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed