[fab] slashdot question -- driver support

[Rahul]

Jesse Keating wrote:
> On Thursday 10 August 2006 10:04, Tim Burke wrote:
>> Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, AMD, Fujitsu, Hitachi, NEC, etc... they all send
>> us hardware and proposed patches.  Further, we encourage these partners
>> to be proactively doing testing on Fedora so that things are well
>> prepared for RHEL releases.
>>
>>>  
>>>
>>>> - RH also works with many companies to help coach and mentor them to the
>>>> merits of open source development.  We help guide them through the
>>>> process of the upstream development model.
>>>>    
>>> Examples?
>>>  
>> Broadcom on their network driver. Promise on SATA/SAS.  Intel on network
>> driver work.  We have been spending a lot of time collectively between
>> IBM/RH and Adaptec on their most recent raid adapter drivers.  The
>> Adaptec case is a good example. They saw the light after having the pain
>> of not being mainstreamed.  We have been working with them over the past
>> 6 months to mentor them to get the driver prepared for upstream
>> incorporation.
> 
> How much of this is directly because of RHEL though? 


Probably the large majority of it .


  If Fedora was TRULY its
> own project, and the stigma of it being a RHEL Alpha was lost, would these 
> hardware vendors be as proactive in sending the project hardware?
   Or would
> they continue to send RED HAT hardware and RED HAT would have to then divvy 
> it out to the Fedora Project.  

Having a vendor backing the distribution is useful in many occasions and 
as long as Red Hat is willing to put its efforts into Fedora, we can 
push other vendors to be responsive and that doesnt require any 
particular tie up between the product lines.

Would we be able to get hardware into the
> hands of non Red Hat employees, folks out in the community who have the 
> ability (and time) to make the latest wizbang hardware from WidgetCo work 
> with Fedora / the Kernel?

Yes. This is really where can and should do better. Red Hat acting as 
the middle man would not work in all situations especially when there is 
no commercial interest in some devices or line of hardware.

Rahul