From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-path: Received: from bar.sig21.net ([80.81.252.164]:60072 "EHLO bar.sig21.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1754556AbZHTOcD (ORCPT ); Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:32:03 -0400 Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:32:00 +0200 From: Johannes Stezenbach To: Devin Heitmueller Cc: linux-media@vger.kernel.org, linux-dvb@linuxtv.org, Michael Krufky Subject: Re: [linux-dvb] au0828: experimental support for Syntek Teledongle [05e1:0400] Message-ID: <20090820143200.GA29984@linuxtv.org> References: <37219a840908171359m152363a2ub377abe6e27ff237@mail.gmail.com> <20090818110041.GA14710@linuxtv.org> <829197380908180707r3aba262fie192090c653c42be@mail.gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <829197380908180707r3aba262fie192090c653c42be@mail.gmail.com> Sender: linux-media-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: 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