Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: The i2o Bus: A Conspiracy Against Free Software? (fwd) | Date | Fri, 18 Jul 1997 10:59:28 -0400 | From | Christopher Blizzard <> |
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In message <199707181411.PAA14650@isengard.uk.ml.com>, Tethys writes: : :>> I suspect that if i2o peripherals become popular, free operating systems :>> will be locked out from running on PC hardware. :> :>I've got 2 words for this (if it's true): REVERSE ENGINEER. :>It's been done before, and it'll be done again... : :Depending on what you're reverse engineering, it may also be illegal. :However, you should be able to apply dirty/clean room techniques to :it to achieve the same effect. : :Also, wouldn't this be anti-competitive practice? They're preventing :OS vendors who want to ship source from being able to support the :hardware needed to retain market share. Maybe one of them will sue, :be it RedHat, Caldera, BSDI or whoever... : :The other option would be for a company (or individual) to sign the :NDA, develop the driver and make it available as a binary only kernel :module. Not ideal, I know, but it would at least be one solution. :Wasn't something like this done for AFS support? : :Tet :
There are a couple of examples of this including Caldera's binary module for Novell access similar to ncpfs. There was also a serial port driver that Alan Cox mentioned once which I belive was distributed as assembly that didn't work very well.
Caldera's module may actually be a pretty good example of this. Every time that a new kernel was released, they had to distribute a new module. While this model works, it's difficult to manage from a technical standpoint. I get the feeling that Caldera distributes this modules as binary only because NDS is available only through an NDA-type agreement. Also there are various nefarious maketing reasons why this might be the case that I won't even go into.
The fact remains however that this new "standard" is a threat to the whole idea of free software. They want control over who has access to the hardware so they can keep thier grip on the market.
--Chris
------------ Christopher Blizzard AppliedTheory Communications, Inc. http://odin.appliedtheory.com/ blizzard@appliedtheory.com ------------
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