[SDBUG] lament about freebsd sacrifices

[Jeremiah Gowdy]

What you're basically complaining about is lack of OEM hardware device
drivers and lack of open source drivers for devices whose specs aren't open.
These are obvious sacrifices in any non-Windows operating system.  Even the
Macintosh platform has occasionally seen hardware which lacks proper drivers
for MacOS.  However, you'll notice that major manufacturers are starting to
provide FreeBSD drivers.  Since we lack the mainstream popularity of Windows
and Linux, it is likely that we will fall just after Linux when it comes to
receiving OEM hardware device drivers.  In the mean time, hard working
people are attempting to reverse engineer devices that they are interested
in seeing supported.  If you are interested in seeing certain devices
supported, either learn how to write device drivers and start reverse
engineering the devices you want to support, or privately contract someone
to write the driver, or donate to the FreeBSD Foundation or individual
developers of FreeBSD.

However, having enumerated a very non-specific list of devices in your
"lamentation" against sacrifices made when running FreeBSD instead of
Windows XP, may I recommend you do what the rest of those of us who need
those devices do: run Windows XP or limit your hardware purchases to
supported devices.

Thanks for yet another post of drivel to the San Diego BSD Users Group
(cross-posted to -questions too, nice question!).



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Leftwich" <Hostmaster at Video2Video.Com>
To: <questions at freebsd.org>; <sdbug at sdbug.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2004 10:36 AM
Subject: [SDBUG] lament about freebsd sacrifices


I thought I would post this as something of a warning.  Using
FreeBSD as a primary, non-dual-boot OS means sacrificing.  Here is a
partial list of sacrifices, as compared to Microsoft Windows XP:

* webcam ball
* flatbed scanner
* color printer
* digital cameras
* firewire devices
* several USB 1 and 2 devices
* IM software features such as voice and video chat
* websites that use ActiveX (Windows) controls
* MP3 devices

Any major sacrifices I've forgotten?  ":-\

--
Peter Leftwich, President & Founder
Video2Video Services
Box 13692, La Jolla, CA, 92039, USA
http://Www.Video2Video.Com



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