non-i386 architectures (Re: Termination of the Philips Webcam Driver (pwc))

Daniel Egger
2004-08-27T22:07:15Z

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On 27.08.2004, at 21:06, Linus Torvalds wrote:

> Whenever somebody says "accept the driver to help users", they are
> missing
> the big picture. A binary driver SCREWS OVER users on other
> architectures.
> It pretty much guarantees that those other architectures will never be
> supported

Suddenly my hopes seem to have paid off after the rumor that you'd
switch
to ppc64. Indeed the nicest hardware in the world is one of those pieces
which have the most troubles running Linux in its full shininess just
because some of the components are "supported on Linux" only in form of
some binary non-SMP x86 crap or not supported at all. While the latter
is
not a problem at all[1] the former will always bite people sometimes
even
*if* they are running the correct architecture. The only way to show
protest is to not buy those products at all and let the manufacturer
know
in clear terms why they've just missed another $50-$50000 deal[2], if
enough people are doing this, there's a slight chance that the company
will reconsider their screw-up. If people continue using what's there
because it "is better than nothing" then all others will be even more
treated as idiots because "the drivers obviously work".

[1] Assuming the hardware in question is not a notebook and the
component
vital.
[2] Depending very much on the price of the product and the quantity.

Servus,
Daniel

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