From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932542AbVLHCY2 (ORCPT ); Wed, 7 Dec 2005 21:24:28 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S932618AbVLHCY2 (ORCPT ); Wed, 7 Dec 2005 21:24:28 -0500 Received: from xproxy.gmail.com ([66.249.82.194]:6470 "EHLO xproxy.gmail.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S932542AbVLHCY1 convert rfc822-to-8bit (ORCPT ); Wed, 7 Dec 2005 21:24:27 -0500 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:date:from:to:cc:subject:message-id:in-reply-to:references:x-mailer:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=LU/GimoybScZ2jMzl5jBmFPoIg5qKUx+lKV8dwi2KeLFU3huFeAYf9U3prgyhGLtfpaIHxR6osHnvy68+tPI6dkgKRpkq9tkjMvulItTDefSr9Gu0NFNGf7OnNKggA0lrDi2LJXE6yS+BTD6hnYn6O5GqYEkE75JuYBYscgyJNA= Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2005 03:24:04 +0100 From: Diego Calleja To: Kasper Sandberg Cc: nicolas.mailhot@laposte.net, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Linux in a binary world... a doomsday scenario Message-Id: <20051208032404.8bad585a.diegocg@gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <1134003536.8162.4.camel@localhost> References: <1133779953.9356.9.camel@laptopd505.fenrus.org> <20051205121851.GC2838@holomorphy.com> <20051206011844.GO28539@opteron.random> <43944F42.2070207@didntduck.org> <20051206030828.GA823@opteron.random> <1133869465.4836.11.camel@laptopd505.fenrus.org> <4394ECA7.80808@didntduck.org> <1133880581.4836.37.camel@laptopd505.fenrus.org> <1134003536.8162.4.camel@localhost> X-Mailer: Sylpheed version 2.1.6 (GTK+ 2.8.3; i486-pc-linux-gnu) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8BIT Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org El Thu, 08 Dec 2005 01:58:56 +0100, Kasper Sandberg escribió: > i disagree, you make it sound like it takes weeks of effort to find out > which stuff works on linux, and that basically you have to be lucky to > find it at all... > > basically the only thing that doesent work (i dont count binary-only > solutions working) is nvidia and ati. Agreed - I know several people who has bought "exotic" laptops and everything (sound, usb, irda, firewire, ethernet, pcmcia slots) except video cards worked out-of-the box using distros like ubuntu Many times Windows XP requires inserting the CDs with 3rd party drivers. IMO the way linux is doing things is the Right Way: Hardware should work out of the box, and things like the windows' panel control driver dialogs are a failure because users should't care about low-level things like installing drivers. The "works under linux logo" is misleading because a given device may not have such logo and it may have been supported by a recent kernel version or it may work only with a distro or things like that. Companies like adaptec are collaborating in creating open source drivers since linux became relevant in servers because companies understood that their devices need to support linux properly if they want to get money. IMO it will happen the same with desktops once linux gets a decent part of the market share if people keeps the same pressure on them. The main problem right now are graphic chips, but IMHO that's because right now there's a "revolution" in the graphics market: programmable GPUs, 3d-hardware-accelerated desktops and all that, but i think it'd be reasonable to expect that it'll settle down after a few years and it will be easier to write drivers for them (today you can reverse engineer a device but ati will release a new and revamped chip in six months etc.)