The future of NetBSD

[Jason Dixon]

On Aug 31, 2006, at 7:01 PM, Marc G. Fournier wrote:

> On Thu, 31 Aug 2006, Pedro Martelletto wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Aug 31, 2006 at 06:50:00PM -0300, Marc G. Fournier wrote:
>>> Even at the kernel level?  Look at device drivers and vendors as one
>>> example ... companies like adaptec have to write *one* device  
>>> driver, for,
>>> what, 50+ distributions of linux ... for us, they need to write  
>>> one for
>>> FreeBSD, one for NetBSD, one for OpenBSD, and *now* one for  
>>> DragonflyBSD
>>> ... if we had *at least* a common API for that sort of stuff, it  
>>> might be
>>> asier to get support at the vendor level, no?
>>
>> Vendors should release documentation, not write drivers.
>
>  In a perfect world, they all would ... this is not a perfect  
> world, it is one dominated by Linux or Microsoft ... I use Adaptec  
> drivers on 3 of my servers, because, in 4.x, they were rock  
> solid ... in 6.x, they have a problem ... I'd like to be able to go  
> out and upgrade those servers to a vendor that provides  
> "documentation", but its a cost I can't afford at this time ... so,  
> should I then switch to Linux because they do welcome 'vendor  
> written drivers'?  Rhetorical question, since I do not consider  
> switching to Linux an option ... instead, I'm trying to do  
> something to help *BSD advocates promote *BSD to those vendors (see  
> http://www.bsdstats.org) by showing them that we aren't just a  
> 'hobbiest operating system' ... what my point is, though, is if we  
> aren't willing to accept 'vendor written drivers', then it is *we*  
> that are limiting our growth but limiting what hardware we can run  
> stably on ...

If everyone had your attitude, there would be no *BSD.  Settling for  
"good enough" means never making progress.

--
Jason Dixon
DixonGroup Consulting
http://www.dixongroup.net