Re: [linux-dvb] au0828: experimental support for Syntek Teledongle [05e1:0400]

[Johannes Stezenbach <js@linuxtv.org>]

On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 10:07:04AM -0400, Devin Heitmueller wrote:
>                                                      The risk of
> trusting some random Linux developer's driver work is a reason why
> some vendors don't want to support Linux.  If I were a vendor, and I
> endorsed a Linux driver written by someone without the appropriate
> knowledge of the hardware, I could end up with large number of product
> returns, and I would incur the cost of those losses.

This is an interesting statement.  Let me rephrase it:

If I were a vendor selling ill-designed hardware which can
be permanently damaged by buggy software, I'd make sure
as hell that I get the information about how to avoid the
damage out to every Open Source developer.  Otherwise
I would have to live with the risk of seeing an increased
rate of product returns.


BTW, there is a big difference of "after I plugged the device
in under Linux it was dead" and "it runs hot under Linux, that might
shorten the life span".  I hope there is no hardware of the first
kind.  For the second kind you can fairly safely experiment until
you solved the problem.


Thanks,
Johannes