Why FreeBSD not popular on hardware vendors

[Ivailo Bonev]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tyson Boellstorff" <perlcat at alltel.net>
To: <freebsd-questions at freebsd.org>
Sent: Friday, December 12, 2008 7:45 AM
Subject: Re: Why FreeBSD not popular on hardware vendors


> On Thursday 11 December 2008 19:58:14 Chad Perrin wrote:
>> On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 05:00:11PM -0800, prad wrote:
>> > On Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:28:13 -0700
>> >
>> > i don't think that's really what is happening, chad.
>> > i think there is just some disagreement as to what is considered an
>> > improvement.
>>
>> So . . . are you saying that increased support for 3D accelerated
>> graphics is not an "improvement", and should therefore not be considered
>> a worthy goal?
>>
>
> Not so much considered 'unworthy' as it is a balancing of limited 
> resources.
> If I was a hardware programmer, had unlimited time, beer, and cheese dip, 
> I'd
> add everything just because I could.
>
> It would be cool if there was a way to ensure that all <foo> items would 
> be
> supported. However, even then, high performance video would lag. It is 
> often
> proprietary, and many vendors simply won't publish their specs and need a
> reverse engineer to get any support at all. You can't force them to do it,
> and in the case of an open source OS, they may not want the world+dog to 
> see
> their code for any number of reasons. nVidia is a rare exception, and even
> they are not going to put FreeBSD support at the top of their list.
>
> Unless you have a job at some video chipset maker, and are of a truly 
> generous
> spirit, willing to risk your job in order to publish drivers, it really
> doesn't matter what priority the powers that be give to video 
> acceleration -- 
> we can't ask anyone to risk their job just so <foo> works. If the graphics
> devices themselves are sub-optimal, getting related systems up to a
> razor-sharp performance level is like putting nitro and a supercharger in
> your Lada. You'd have to put it in the back seat, because there's no room 
> in
> the engine compartment for it.

What's your problem with Lada?! :-D
They make cars (especially Niva) to drive everywhere!
Just my 2 euro cents... lol