Are hardware vendors starting to bail on FreeBSD ... ?
Ted Mittelstaedt
tedm at toybox.placo.com
Thu Jul 27 05:56:07 UTC 2006
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gerard Seibert" <gerard at seibercom.net>
To: <freebsd-questions at freebsd.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2006 6:17 PM
Subject: Re: Are hardware vendors starting to bail on FreeBSD ... ?
> Giorgos Keramidas wrote:
>
> > If the technical specifications are open, there is *zero* support cost
> > for the hardware vendor. They don't even _have_ to make a driver for
> > their hardware. What they *can* do though is reply to requests for an
> > open source driver with: ``Piss off! We have you the technical specs,
> > so you can write your own. Our development and support costs would not
> > be justified, but here's the spec... give it your best shot.''
> >
> > *This* is the point Darrin is trying to make :)
>
> Obviously, everyone has their own take on the subject. The bottom line
> is that they, meaning the product or software developer, has a legal
> right to do with their product as they see fit.
That isn't true. Once I buy their product they have absolutely no right to
dictate how I use it, including if I want to reverse engineer it and write
my
own driver. That has been proven numerous times in courts of law.
The problem here is that Adaptec is thinking that they have a right to
control
DISTRIBUTION of their product BEYOND THE POINT OF SALE. You
see, if Adaptec releases a product that uses a blob, or obscured driver,
whether it's for FreeBSD or Windows, they know that in all liklihood their
product is going to last far longer than they want it to. Adaptec wants you
to buy their product, use it in your current OS, then 2 years from now when
you update OS's, they want you to toss their perfectly working product
in the garbage and buy a new one from them.
Lots of other manufacturers do this, Hewlett Packard is famous for it with
their all-in-one products, that only run under the Windows OS, lots of those
only have drivers for a few versions of Windows, and no driver was ever
released for Windows XP. For another example I have a Sceptre SCSI
flatbed scanner here that has a TWAIN driver for Windows NT 4 but not for
Windows 2K. It's on my wife's system, fortunately she does not use it much
but when she does want to use it, I have her system setup to dual-boot.
Now you can pontificate all you want on the rights of companies to do this
or that with their marketing. But I am not talking legal rights here. If
companies
only went by the book of what is legal, we would be awash in stock scams,
and the SEC would be investigating thousands of CEO's every year. For
example, how would you feel if you had a severe peanut allergy and you
bought
a jar of jelly then had a reaction because in the same factory that the food
company
packaged jelly, they packaged peanut butter? Some people have peanut
allergies that are that severe - no food contact has to occur, simply the
fumes
from peanuts are enough to set it off. Well companies aren't legally
required
to disclose if they make a product in the same factory as where they make a
peanut product - but they do, I just saw a warning like that on the side of
Dairy Queen the other day.
Today, it is recognized in the business community that there is such a thing
as business ethics and that there are things that are legal to do but are
not
ethical to do. And most business don't do them, you would probably be
surprised to know, simply because they aren't ethical. In just about all
customers minds - cept perhaps yours - it isn't ethical for a company to
force obsolescense. Hell, even Microsoft realized that with Windows 95.
You can still download all the older Windows 95 patches from the Microsoft
website if you know where to look, and they stopped supporting that OS
years ago.
Go look at the automobile industry. You can still buy parts for 20 year old
card from the dealers, and 40 year old cars from the aftermarket - do you
see the major automakers suing the aftermarket because the aftermarket
makes Dexron transmission fluid available that I can use to keep my 1966
Torqueflight on the road?
Or how about my wife and her canning stuff. Guess what - you can still
buy jar rings and seals for 30 - 40 year old Mason jars. Are the companies
that make Mason jars out there doing unethical things like releasing new
styles
of Mason jars every few years that use different sized mouths so you can't
buy seals for them anymore? Bullshit!
What Adaptec is doing is unethical. Adaptec used to claim they were doing
it to keep competitors from stealing their secrets. Now all their major
competitors
don't exist anymore (bankrupt or bought by Adaptec). And the older Adaptec
cards that are no longer viable products in the market, thus nobody would
be interested in stealing their secrets - well why don't Adaptec release
programming
specs on those now?
I don't buy new Adaptec products because of this. If I come across an
Adaptec
product in a used piece of gear I might try using it - sure. But if it
doesen't work,
(quite often) I discard it and move on. Until they stop believing they have
the
right to control use of their products beyond the point of sale, that won't
change
for me.
Ted
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