Messages in this thread | | | From | Andrej Presern <> | Subject | Re: UDI and Politics (was Re: Linux, UDI and SCO.) | Date | Mon, 21 Sep 1998 01:35:25 +0200 |
| |
On Sun, 20 Sep 1998, Bob Taylor wrote: >> <Begin Quote> >> However, writing new drivers for the thousands of peripherals >> on the market is a daunting task. Hence, Project UDI is hoping >> the Linux community will help. Linux will be, said Quick, key >> to the adoption of the UDI initiative. A reference platform >> will be distibributed as freeware for Linux, and the Project >> UDI members will be counting on the Linux community to work >> on device drivers. "We have talked to Linus Torvalds (the >> creator of Linux) and he was very interested in the idea," >> Intel's Demshki said. > >If they are really serious in regards needing the Linux community >support, then where is our invitation to sit at the same table with >at least an equal vote? Hmm?
There cannot be any equal vote on the subject. Project UDI is set to achieve what Linux has already achieved. Linux developers have already written new drivers (of highest quality) for the thousands of peripherals on the market (and would write more if there were specs available). That's why Project UDI is hoping the Linux community will help, and that's why Linux would be key to the adoption of the UDI initiative.
If Project UDI members are really counting on the Linux community to work on device drivers, they should make them and/or hardware specs available, so that Linux community can actually _work_ on them. However, the effort that will be put into work, should be repayed somehow. That's why the UDI specifications should _explicitly request_ that UDI-conformant drivers are GPL (or a variant of GPL), so that open source community, a major participant in the deal, can benefit from the project also. Nobody will nor can stop hardware vendors, who produce special hardware (or believe that their hardware is such), from shipping binary-only drivers that can actually work in some UDI-conformant environments, but without the "UDI-conformant" tag. The tag should be used to mark a driver that has a guarantee that it can at least be made to work in any UDI-conformant environment, if it does - for various reasons, such as a non-supported platform or operating system, bugs etc - not work yet.
Linux is on its fast way to becoming the most successfull UNIX variant ever, I think that's pretty obvious by now. And GPL, together with the work of many many people from the GNU generation, is what made it such. Getting the UDI deal any other way than GPL would be a step back for the whole UNIX community.
Andrej
-- Andrej Presern, andrejp@luz.fe.uni-lj.si
- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
| |