I have spoken with hauppauge about this sort of thing
in the past.

it sounds simple, but there are more complex issues.

1) linux and windows have completely different O/S
level interfaces. The part that configures the card
will probably be the same, but actaully interacting
with the card won't be. The windows directshow
interface or whatever it is has an api that is used to
communicate with windows (much like v4l in linux),
only it's far more complex, and (you guessed it) not
even close to compatible.

2) linux is such a small part of the market that they
can't justify hiring a developer.. They have been
quite helpful to me, moreso than most companies.

3) much of the 'value-add' or 'competitive edge' that
hauppauge *percieves* that it has over the competition
is the tuner setup (fine-tuning, etc) nuances and
other little things they do for their cards to make
that extra little bit of difference. Releasing that to
the community (at least in their view) is to remove a
lot of their competitive edge. Whether or not this is
true is a matter of debate, since we're sniffing the
i2c bus anyhow, but it's obviously more complex than
that since we can't seem to get the pvr150's working
all the time :)

I'm just putting #3 out there because they have
expressed their concern to me on the topic. Please do
not debate the validity of the point.

-tmk

--- Matt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Understand something, I never complained that they
> weren't forthcoming with information...  I was
> complaining that they weren't forthcoming with
> DRIVERS!!!  I then cited an example of a company
> that does provide linux drivers to indicate what
> should be the norm not the exception.  Hauppague had
> all of the information to build a great Windows
> driver.. I know, my card works great under windows
> but then... it seems that the magic information just
> evaporates and they are unable to produce drivers
> for linux.  Correct me if I am wrong but it is
> possible to create the drivers without releasing the
> source code... they could compile the drivers using
> the same complier they use to build the Windows
> driver.  Thereby, support linux without violating
> any of their NDAs.



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