From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Joe Miklojcik Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 18:08:35 +0000 Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] Re: 4D-NXs (was Re: Sync Issues) Message-Id: List-Id: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: linux-sound@vger.kernel.org Dan Hollis wrote: > On Wed, 27 Oct 1999, Paul Barton-Davis wrote: > > * "we don't have enough programmers to do that" > > If the drivers are being written for them by volunteers, I dont see how > this is relevant. They just can't imagine anybody who isn't in their shop writing a driver. It's a really crappy job. > > * "we don't have any written documentation to give you guys - > > we wrote the driver by having the software group sit in with > > the hardware group" > > This should be a warning sign to anyone thinking of purchasing their > hardware. If a company cant be bothered to internally document the > hardware, what happens if key engineers leave the company? Oh dear, their > project is *permanently screwed*, which means zero support for end users. > This is no way to run a company. I agree. A couple of years ago, I badgered Opcode into giving me specs for their 8Port/SE under NDA so I could write a Linux driver for myself. It took three passes just to convince them that I could do it if I had the specs, even if I didn't work in their shop. It took two more passes to convince them that I would honor the NDA as I would any other legal obligation, and that I would furnish any results I gained working with NDA protected material back to them. Never mind Open Source, these guys didn't want me to know their deep dark "how to use a parallel port" secrets. Turns out the real reason it was pulling teeth to get their spec is that the spec revealed how shoddy of an engineering job the 8Port/SE was. I wound up destroying the spec and giving the unit to a Windows sufferer. > > > * "we think our hardware's proprietary secrets will be revealed > > if there is a source code driver" > > Uh, isnt this what patents are for? If someone reverse engineers their > card, they are *completely screwed* unless they have patent protection. Shhh :) They haven't figured that out yet. It's the only thing saving us on a lot of the hardware Linux supports. I'm not a lawyer, but I think that they can deny the right to reverse engineer in a user license, which would make some drivers illegal. This leads to the silly phrase "If drivers are outlawed, only outlaws will have drivers." -- Joe Miklojcik - NBCS System Programmer - http://oss.rutgers.edu The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers. --Richard W. Hamming, 1962