From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S265743AbUHVCgS (ORCPT ); Sat, 21 Aug 2004 22:36:18 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S265668AbUHVCgS (ORCPT ); Sat, 21 Aug 2004 22:36:18 -0400 Received: from liberty.phpwebhosting.com ([69.0.209.130]:39630 "HELO liberty.phpwebhosting.com") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id S265743AbUHVCgQ (ORCPT ); Sat, 21 Aug 2004 22:36:16 -0400 Message-ID: <41283EDA.6080501@dastyle.net> Date: Sun, 22 Aug 2004 02:36:10 -0400 From: Jonathan Bastien-Filiatrault User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux ppc; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040819 Debian/1.7.2-3 X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: James Courtier-Dutton CC: Lee Revell , Wakko Warner , "David N. Welton" , linux-kernel Subject: Re: Linux Incompatibility List References: <87r7q0th2n.fsf@dedasys.com> <20040821201632.GA7622@digitasaru.net> <20040821202058.GA9218@animx.eu.org> <1093120274.854.145.camel@krustophenia.net> <41282F4C.9060305@dastyle.net> <4127FD5A.90605@superbug.demon.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <4127FD5A.90605@superbug.demon.co.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org James Courtier-Dutton wrote: > Jonathan Bastien-Filiatrault wrote: > >>> >> Vendors should understand that ACTUALLY supporting linux means >> adopting the free software philosophy. In many cases, vendors think >> that they should be the only one to be able to write drivers, since >> 99% of desktop users dont care about their software freedom. Vendors >> should not try to obscure the workings of their devices, they should >> show the world how they are innovating in hardware design by >> releasing specs on a freely-redistributable basis. This would greatly >> improve competiveness and innovation in the domain of hardware >> design. Give me a binary driver and i will buy from you once, give >> me the specs and i'll appreciate the effort you put in designing the >> device. >> - >> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe >> linux-kernel" in >> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org >> More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html >> Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/ >> >> > > I remember a computer from pre ibm-pc days. It came with a manual that > included a detailed circuit diagram, so the user could make any > repairs they wished. It also gave details regarding CPU instruction > set, and memory layout, so that anyone could write any OS they liked > for it. My dad had a thing like that(quick reference card) for an old motorola 6800(not 68000) processor. It only had 2 8-bit general purpose registers if I remember correctly. Doesn't even begin to compare with modern ppc processors. > > If we do create a nice long list, we should also include Linux > compatible hardware as well. > E.g. Latest XYZ laptop, it would list all the chips in the laptop, > together with what level of support linux has for each one. > The problem comes with actually identifying the parts. > For example, Creative have lots of different sound cards, all called > the SB Live, but they all have very different chips in them, with > some supported by linux, and some not. Don't you just love those > Marketing people. :-( > We can use PCI IDs and PCI subsystem IDs, to identify Motherboards, > and PCI cards. We might also have to identify revision numbers. > We can use USB IDs to identify USB devices. Good idea, we should have something like two lists one for "chips" and one for "containers of chips" aka whole systems. That way it could be cross-referenced in a database-like way with a nice gtk frontend. The project probably ressemble the pci-ids project. That would pave the way for a free(as in speech) hardware purchasing guide.