From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Michael Taylor Subject: Re: Serial hub firmware and Debian 3.1 Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 19:03:22 +0100 Message-ID: <20050726180322.GA94239@coffee> References: <20050725035642.8055.qmail@radagast.org> <200507260935.52267.w.knol@niwa.co.nz> Mime-Version: 1.0 Return-path: Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: Sender: linux-hams-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: Jeremy Utley Cc: linux-hams@vger.kernel.org On Mon, Jul 25, 2005 at 09:46:06PM -0700, Jeremy Utley wrote: > A little off topic for the list, I know, but why can you understand a > manufacturer not releasing driver sources? > > a) The driver sources are no good unless you already have the hardware > b) A manufacturer *SHOULD* want to allow people to use their hardware Because increasingly "features" are not implemented in hardware but in either programmable firmware or the drivers itself. The usage of surplus CPU cycles on the motherboard means that less hardware is needed on the device itself. This translates to fewer components, lower costs, cheaper selling price, which in a post-Walmart world means more sales and thus more profits.