Dennis writes:
> >One note: if you made the source to your drivers public, it is likely
> >that the NetBSD crowd would simply maintain the drivers in -current
> >for you. Given that you are a hardware vendor and make your money on
> >selling the cards...
> 
> Its also likely someone would port them to cheaper cards. 

> Its chatter like this that drives vendors away from "Free" unices, you know. 

I'm sorry that you take offense. I was merely suggesting what I
thought was practical. Companies like the SCSI card makers, ethernet
card makers, etc., seem to make their money off of the hardware, and
the sales tend to go to the companies for which there are drivers
available.

It's a lot easier for fifty people to maintain a driver than one, but
if you're that worried that someone will steal your driver...

> Its the driver that makes the card, not the other way around.

So you are saying I could take any old card and make it perform as
well as yours if I just spend a bit of time on the drivers?  Any other
card? I suspect that isn't the case, at least based on what I've seen
in the past. Ususally to make serial go at these speeds the card needs 
intelligence and most of the driver won't even port at all to begin with.

Anyway, I'm unlikely to convince you, I suspect, based on what you've
just said. I was giving you advice based on what I thought would be in 
your best interest as a hardware vendor, but if you have a differing
opinion, well, it's your business, not mine.

Perry