Questions drivers for VGA and NIC

[Jerry McAllister]

On Wed, Oct 01, 2008 at 06:04:24PM -0400, Jerry wrote:

> On Wed, 1 Oct 2008 23:25:19 +0200 (CEST)
> Wojciech Puchar <wojtek at wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> wrote:
> 
> >> In all likelihood, the probability of any vendor creating FBSD
> >> specific drivers is directly proportionate to the expenditure of
> >> funds to create and maintain the driver versus the expected revenue
> >> from such an expenditure.  
> >
> >giving out a specs will be the simplest way.
> 
> Any entity, or corporation, has a right to expect a return on their
> investment. To expect a corporation to simply give away something,
> thereby depriving their shareholders, partners or whatever, of their
> rightfully expected monetary reward is foolish. It certainly is not a
> well thought out  business model.

First, in cases like this, giving out the specs so someone can write 
a good driver could increase their sales of cards which could, in 
turn, increase their profit.    So, it would help their business
rather than hurt it.   They do not sell those drivers.   They just
use them to sell video cards.    Since the lack of a driver that
works in FreeBSD limits their sales of video cards, then they are 
making the business mistake you are indicating, only in a reverse 
sort of way.


Second, and very important.    No corporation has any right to expect
a return on their investment.   Investment is always a risk.  They
might hope for a return, but they will have to work for it.  They will
be fortunate to get it.   More business ventures fail than succeed.

Maybe it is only a case of using the wrong word, but it is still
important to remember that there is no guarantee of profit.   That
was the big failing of price controls - that the government got
in to the business of guaranteeing profits and then the whole thing
fell apart.

////jerry    Jerry McAllister    jerrymc at msu.edu    
    

> 
> -- 
> Jerry
> gesbbb at yahoo.com
> 
> If man is only a little lower than the angels, the angels should reform.
> 
> 	Mary Wilson Little