It'd be nice if all the drivers in the world were open source, but at this point in time, I'd settle for closed-source binary drivers from someone like Dell. I use the proprietary drivers from ATI for my video card because they perform better than the available open-source drivers. Do I think ATI should open-source their drivers? Of course. But that doesn't mean I'm going to sacrifice performance in the meantime. I've got Ubuntu running on a Dell Inspiron and in order to make the Wifi work, I've got to get the Windows driver from Dell and use ndiswrapper. If they were to make a proprietary Linux driver for their Wifi cards, it'd be much better than using ndiswrapper, even if it's not open source.
What I use on a day-to-day basis are open source applications, and if I have to install some closed-source drivers to get my workstation to run those apps optimally, then it's still a step forward in my book. Of course, I'm like many others on this list in that I have all self-built white box desktops at home, and Dell selling desktops with Linux is a bit ho-hum for my tastes. I doubt I'll ever build or buy a white-box laptop however, so to me personally that's the most significant part of Dell's announcement. - Jason L. > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of larry price > Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2007 2:00 AM > To: Allen Brown; Eugene Unix and Gnu/Linux User Group > Subject: Re: [Eug-lug] Looks like Dell is going to start > pre-installing Linux > > On 2/26/07, Allen Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > The most sensible way for Dell to approach this is the require > > certification from their component vendors. Doing the certs > > themselves would be too expensive. It would also leave > them exposed > > when their vendors made changes to their product, something > companies > > do all the time to save money. But if the vendor is > responsible for > > certs, then they have to recertify when they make a revision. > > > > All of this will be excellent for us since it means more > vendors will > > feel pressure to be Linux compatible and certify that they are. > > And of course the easiest way to get Linux certified > components is to have gpl'd or open source drivers and the > cheapest way to get those is to provide full and complete > documentation to interested developers > > http://www.kroah.com/log/2007/01/29/#free_drivers > > I sense a virtuous cycle in the making... > > and if that scenario took hold then Theo De Raadt would have > to find something else to pick fights about > http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/openbsd/2007-02/0891.html > > ( Dell would never sell machines with OpenBSD preinstalled, > after all they might have compromised the system when they > loaded the machine... > Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure. ) > _______________________________________________ > EUGLUG mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug > _______________________________________________ EUGLUG mailing list [email protected] http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug
