On Thu, 2007-02-08 at 10:50 -0800, David Boles wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > Dotan Cohen wrote: > > On 08/02/07, Les Mikesell <lesmikesell@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > >> A better question for most of us might be "who knows more about how to > >> make it work best, you or the experts that designed it? And as far as > >> changing it, wouldn't it be best to keep expenses down to let hardware > >> providers make changes as frequently as technology permits, supplying > >> drivers to match instead of waiting for an OS provider that might be > >> dealing with thousands of other devices to catch up? > >> > > > > I would agree with you IF those same hardware providers actually DID > > get off their asses and write the drivers. But they are not. > > > > Dotan Cohen > > > There have been over one million downloads of Fedora Core 6 and I can only > think of maybe four people on this list that have mentioned webcams. > > Do you suppose that since the driver developers get paid by the hardware > makers to write Windows drivers that they do it for that reason? They do it > for the money. And since you want free driver support for your free OS there > just might be very little incentive to pay to have drivers written for > Linux? For no money. I don't know what they are paying but I would think > that writing drivers for four people, give or take a few more, would not > even be be on the 'list of important things to do'. > > Think about this that way. > - -- > > David They are selling Cameras, not drivers. They MUST write the drivers to sell the cameras. Whether the driver exists on Mac, Windows, Vista, Linux, Unix or whatever, the drivers MUST be written for them to sell the cameras. I don't yet know of the degree of penetration by Linux, but I for one am touting Linux to everyone I can. Microsoft got me too many times and cost me too much to make me happy. Linux has not (at least not yet), and UNIX, which I used for over 20 years never bit me once (unless I did something foolish first). Will the HW guys ever pick up Linux as the primary OS? Not this year. But the penetration of Vista is not assured, and some of the actions that the DRM has seemingly forced upon Windows seems too onorous for their success without lots of "tweaking". Time will tell. But personally, I think the world needs a new OS, one that is open, allows for greater development, better security and greater portability. Linux may be that OS, or there may be something on the horizon that we only hear about occasionally or not at all yet. However the next system is to come into being, it must garner support and users for the HW builders to take it seriously. And there must be profit in the process. Innovation thrives on curiosity, support thrives on profit, and that is the way of the world, capitalistic or not. When the profit is there, the providers will move in to get it, and that benefits everyone. Regards, Les H
