From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Jeremy Utley Subject: Re: Serial hub firmware and Debian 3.1 Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 21:46:06 -0700 Message-ID: References: <20050725035642.8055.qmail@radagast.org> <200507260935.52267.w.knol@niwa.co.nz> Reply-To: Jeremy Utley Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Return-path: In-Reply-To: <200507260935.52267.w.knol@niwa.co.nz> Content-Disposition: inline Sender: linux-hams-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: linux-hams@vger.kernel.org > Hmm...I can understand Keyspan not wanting to release the driver > sources for the chipset, and I can see why the Debian people won't > distribute non-GPL code. > > Wilbert, ZL2BSJ 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 Therefore, it's in *EVERY* manufacturer's best interests to release driver source. Keep in mind we're not talking about the ARCHITECTURE of the device - I can easily see why someone would want to protect that...but the protocols used in communicating with that device, there's absolutely ZERO reason to keep those closed - because of a) above. Jeremy, NW7JU