Please don't change Beastie to another crap logo suchasNetBSD!!!

Frank Laszlo laszlof at tvog.net
Thu Feb 10 06:11:33 PST 2005


Anthony Atkielski wrote:

>Ted Mittelstaedt writes:
>  
>
>>The only real issue I see to FreeBSD's survival that requires
>>corporate attention is device drivers for new hardware. And this is an
>>issue that harms all operating systems even Windows. There are just as
>>many older versions of Windows being made unrunnable by new hardware
>>that lacks drivers for it, as BSD versions.
>>    
>>
>
>Don't hardware manufacturers publish specs detailed enough to allow
>third parties to write drivers?
>  
>
In a perfect world, Yes. In reality. No. A lot of hardware manufactures 
feel that they only need to support the 75% of the world that runs a 
proprietary OS. (this 75% figure was pulled out of my ass, it doesnt 
mean anything, just a representation) There is a general lack of support 
for the "Free" world from corporations developing hardware, this is one 
of the major downfalls in using Free software. (should say a Free OS, 
and not software in general) This is partially due to marketing and 
promotion of the OS in question. Take a look at a few major linux 
distributions for example. Lets say Fedora and SuSE. They have far 
superior hardware support than say slackware, or even FreeBSD for that 
matter. Why? Because they have major corporations backing them. With 
funding, promotion, etc... What does FreeBSD have? I dont have an answer 
for this yet. I'm not trying to start a flamewar, so dont take it that 
way.  Just my 2 cents.

Regards,
    Frank Laszlo


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