[fab] slashdot question -- driver support

seth vidal skvidal at linux.duke.edu
Thu Aug 10 05:03:30 UTC 2006


On Wed, 2006-08-09 at 16:48 -0400, Max Spevack wrote:
> another fun one for any of your thoughts.  My guess is that most of the 
> answer to this question is a philosophic one about proprietary vendors 
> versus open source drivers, but I wanted to throw it out there.
> 
> -----------
> 
> 2) Drivers Vs Linux
> (Score:5, Interesting)
> by eldavojohn
> 
> A lot of people I talk to say they don't like Linux due to lack of driver 
> support. Is there anyway you see this problem being eliminated? How do you 
> court vendors to support their hardware on your flavor of Linux?
> 

Would it be wrong to answer with:
 We don't court vendors. Vendors, for the most part, don't give a damn
about linux b/c, well, we have a meager marketshare when it comes to
support for desktop/end-user devices. 

Now, if you want to talk about support for hardware for servers then we
can definitely talk about that. Vendors are practically beating a path
to the lkml to give drivers to us b/c they are beginning to learn that
to play nice with the linux kernel with your drivers is a good way to
sell hardware.

If this is in any doubt at all, just ask Dell and IBM vis-a-vis their
server hardware.



OR for an entirely other tack:


Most negotiations with any large company for anything that they've not
received huge stacks of cash for works like this:
  Someone has a friend who has the ear of an exec at company X. The
friend has been convinced that linux is okay and should be helped.
Therefore, the friend bugs the exec at company X and swears it will be
good PR and will make good financial sense. Then the exec starts turning
the corporate wheels and 6 months to a year (or more) later code or
hardware specs come popping out the other end. All of the 'courting' is
back channel and from a friend of a friend. Or what Malcolm Gladwell
would refer to as a chain of connectors and a couple of salesmen. :)

In short, ain't much the average person can do unless the average person
is not so average. :)
-sv





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