letter writing for FreeBSD support

[Jim Stapleton]

If you had the choice between binary blobs with well documented use,
or fully binary drivers, which would you choose? I'm talking about a
case, such as most notably with ATI or nVidia where there is 3rd party
technology not belonging to (but liscenced by) the company, that has
to be considered, and cannot be released.

-Jim Stapleton

On 10/27/06, Brad Davis <brdbrd at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Jim,
>
> Please remove the bits about binary blobs.. Those are a Bad Thing(tm).
>
>
> Regards,
> Brad Davis
>
> On 10/26/06, Jim Stapleton <stapleton.41 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hello, I've been talking with someone else here, and on a few other
> > groups, and I'd like to try a letter writing campaign to Toshiba to
> > try to get them to produce either open source drivers for the quirky
> > parts of their notebooks, or if that is not possible, closed source
> > drivers so that FreeBSD can run on them. I was wondering what the
> > thoughts where here? The individual I've been emailing with (another
> > [various]@freebsd.org poster), and he suggested this:
> >
> > > Do you think it'd be useful to send to advocacy@ for comments? They will
> > > probably know a trick or two or correct things we've missed... then maybe send
> > > openly to questions + mobile + multimedia.... wdyt?
> >
> > My letter template:
> >
> > --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Dear sir/ma'am
> >
> >    I have read/heard several reports as to the quality of product and
> > support for Toshiba notebooks. However, I have also read/heard many
> > reports of their lack of driver support with non-Windows operating
> > systems such as Linux and BSD. Unfortunately, I use _______ and would
> > likely have compatibility issues with your product. Nonetheless I feel
> > that your product would be a good option for my future purposes, if
> > this area were fixed. Additionally the better driver support could
> > help increase your market share, and defend the share that you have
> > against other manufacturers who have good first or third party support
> > for these operating systems (such as Dell and Lenovo).
> >    I am writing to request that you take one or more of the following
> > actions, so that I myself, and other can find your otherwise excellent
> > notebooks and service a viable option:
> >
> > a. Provide open source drivers for one or more open source operating
> > systems, preferably Linux or BSD
> > b. Provide sufficient documentation of Toshiba hardware so that
> > drivers can be written by the open source community
> > c. If your IP protection requires it, or you license external IP that
> > requires it, create closed source drivers for at least Linux and the
> > various incarnations of BSD.
> > c. If your IP protection requires it, or you license external IP that
> > requires it, create closed source binary blobs with documented OS
> > independent accession methods (such that any x86 operating system
> > could execute the blobs, even if machine level entry is required), and
> > document the method needed to access these entry points.
> >
> > Thank you for your time
> >
> >
> > ___________________
> >
> > --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> >
> > Thanks,
> > -Jim Stapleton
> > _______________________________________________
> > freebsd-advocacy at freebsd.org mailing list
> > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-advocacy
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> >
>