Re: Linux in a binary world... a doomsday scenario

Grahame White
2005-12-06T21:35:57Z

On Tuesday 06 December 2005 18:48, you wrote:
> On Tue, 2005-12-06 at 16:41 +0000, Dirk Steuwer wrote:
> > Sander <sander <at> humilis.net> writes:
> > > Quite a few companies state on their site that their hardware is
> > > supported in Linux if it is.
> > >
> > > And I've never bought any computer equipment in a shop. Always
> > > online, where there is no such thing as a box anyway
> >
> > Yes, but there isn't and won't be much recognition - every company
> > does its own thing. And how many people buy online all the time? But
> > even then, a genery "runs with Linux" Logo would be great. If a
> > company's product is not certified, its not considered by Linux
> > customers.
>
> The vendors will just lie like they do now. For example M-Audio claims
> all its products are supported under Linux but leave out the fact that
> half of it had to be reverse engineered, lots of it still doesn't work
> right for lack of docs, and whenever someone asks them about Linux
> support they just punt to the ALSA mailing lists.

Then how about a "formal" linux certified logo? IOW a logo that can *only*
be used if the hardware has drivers that were written using an officially
supplied set of specifications and if said drivers are available under an
OSI certified licence. Any use of the logo on a piece of hardware that is
not certified would be liable to legal action.

Admittedly this would require a fair amount of effort to set up and uphold
but if it helped make it easier to choose compatible hardware it could be
worth it.

>
> Lee
>
> -
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