Re: [future of drivers?] a proposal for binary drivers.

Helge Hafting
2006-03-13T11:17:55Z

Jan Knutar wrote:

>On Wednesday 08 March 2006 23:28, Tim Tassonis wrote:
>
>
>
>>OS/2 died exactly because software companies didn't write closed-source
>>software, hardware companies didn't write closed-source drivers, and IBM
>>couldn't write it all themselves.
>>
>>
>
>I read somewhere that the development kit was obscenely expensive and
>effectively locked out all hobbyists and small companies.
>
IBM stuff may have been expensive.
There was gcc for os/2 though, which was nice for hobbyists.
The way I remember it, drivers wasn't the big problem. The lack of drivers
could have become a problem if the lack of software was solved. But it
wasn't - no need to drive a device for which you don't have an app . . .

Having gcc meant one could port some gpl software, which usually
originated on linux or other unixes. But using such software on
linux was always easier, and so I switched os.

Helge Hafting