This really should be in advocacy or somewhere else, but at least the
subject is tagged...

On Fri, Feb 22, 2002 at 02:19:29PM -0800, David Lawler Christiansen (NT) wrote:

> Remember, it's not as simple as ensuring that the driver builds on the
> following X incarnations of NetBSD, detects and that the kernel boots.
> You have to test it.  Often, you also have to test it with multiple
> motherboards, configurations, etc.  All that labor, time, and expertise
[snip]

It doesn't cost them anything to provide the information necessary to
write drivers.

Most of them could also write reference drivers that would be reasonably
portable.  They only have to provide a couple of them and the community
can do the rest.

> My point is that you need to look beyond the likes of CompUSA and Best
> Buy.  If anyone thinks that chains like that are stocking Windows
> machines because of some enormous "nefrious" plot by MS that involves
> black helicopters, kickbacks, and strongarm tactics, please speak up-- I
> love to shoot down idiotic theories like that.

I don't know about the helicopters, but they definitely have strong-armed
more than a few hardware and other companies.  I have talked to some of
the personnel in places where this has happened: this is not theory.

Besides that, Microsoft's unethical and stupid practices are intuitively
obvious to the casual observer.

> Unclear whether "you" in this case is MS, or "you" is the consumer
> wishing to buy components that are non-Windows-specific.  In my
> experience, the consumer's hands are almost never tied-- he/she's just
> not being creative or resourceful enough.

Some major software and hardware alternatives have been eliminated over
the years by Microsoft.  Resourcefulness on my part will not bring them
back so I can use them, they are gone now.

I personally think they will one day sink their own ship, and I
cannot wait until they do, but for now living in the world they have
created sucks.  You cannot get away from it no matter where you turn.
Sometimes I can't even apply for a damn job without some idiot saying
they cannot hire me unless I submit a resume in Microsoft Word format.

I think they day they fall should become a national, if not worldwide,
holiday.

-- 
UNIX/Perl/C/Pizza__________________________________shannon@widomaker.com