Hi Fernando, I cannot predict nor foresee what HW vendors will do in the future but it looks to me there's a trend like that. For example, there is some collaboration [1] between NVIDIA and the developers of the open source nouveau driver and also, Intel seems to release some of its codes as open source [2][3], too.
Legal issues still hold vendors back from releasing their driver codes but at least, there is some level of collaboration now between vendors and open source developers which is a great step forwards compared to the times when reverse engineering was the only possible way to create drivers for open source OSes. Regards, Gergely 1: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/09/nvidia-seeks-peace-with-linux-pledges-help-on-open-source-driver/ 2: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/13815/Intel-Graphics-Drivers-for-Linux- 3: https://01.org/ On 10 March 2015 at 22:33, Fernando Frediani <fhfredi...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Gergely, > > I'm just curious to know what makes you be "pretty sure" that many vendors > will start doing this in the future and overcome the possible legal or > political issues they may have to do that ? Marvel was one of the worst > cases I've ever seen here and I have no much idea what made them to release > it (a miracle maybe?). Unless you were referring to "in the future" as next > century I don't see that happening that soon. > > Other than that I fully agree OpenWrt is great, well developed and > maintained. > > Best, > > > On 10/03/2015 17:26, Gergely Kiss wrote: > > Hi Valent, > > first of all, I strongly disagree with people claiming that OpenWrt sucks > because it doesn't. For me it rather looks like a well-maintained, rapidly > improving project with a great number of actively supported hardware and > quite a few people contributing to the project regularly. I can see dozens > of patches published every day not only by the core devs but by many > contributors which is a great thing and indicates that many people are > trying to make OpenWrt *even *better. > > I must mention you had a point that made me smile - it's about being a > miracle that openwrt works as good as it does. This reminded me to the DNS > system. As we all know, it was never developed with a concept of creating a > complex network service to be used in a worldwide network but more like as > a simple "phonebook" for companies, schools and other small, autonomous > institutions to avoid the need to remember IP addresses. Now, DNS is used > worldwide by thousands of entities and is probably one of the oldest > protocols still actively used on the internet and it still works pretty > good despite its age. Miracles do happen sometimes and that's what makes > our lives brighter. :) > > Anyway, as far as I can see, more and more manufacturers (including > wireless chip vendors) realize the benefits of open source and release > their driver codes to the open source community. I clearly remember seeing > some driver sources posted on this list directly by Marvell and I'm pretty > sure that many other vendors will start doing so in the future. I think the > reason why most vendors still haven't published their drivers is more like > legal issues rather than technical or "political" ones. They have to meet > regulatory requirements and respect the copyright of other people's work. > Even if they would feel inclined to release their driver, they can't do so > because of licensing issues. > > For people complaining about OpenWrt, I would simply tell them that first > of all, it's provided for free for everyone in the world so stop > complaining. Also, being an open source project, it's always open for > contributions. Everyone has the possibility to share ideas or implement > features making OpenWrt a more stable, more robust and more versatile piece > of software. > > My fifty cents was to create a port of Seafile for OpenWrt - I'm using > it myself at home and I'm very happy to see it running on my router with a > USB HDD attached rather than running an additional home server 24/7 > consuming more power and taking up more room in my flat. At the same time, > I'm happy to provide the same ability to other people because that's how > it's meant to be. > > Do you think OpenWrt sucks? Then stop complaining and do something to make > it better. It's that simple. > > Cheers, > Gergely > > On 9 March 2015 at 21:02, valent.turko...@gmail.com < > valent.turko...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Hi all, >> I see this or similar question of forums all the time and I have >> answered it few times. I suggest we open a wiki page and contribute an >> answer. >> >> Here is how I usually reply to similar questions, please give your >> comments in your replies: >> >> >> Why it OpenWrt slower than stock firmware? I can help by shining a bit >> of light onto this subject. I'm developing custom firwmares based on >> OpenWrt but I'm not OpenWrt developer, still as I have few years of >> experience with OpenWrt I can explain why sometimes performance sucks >> or there are some issues and bugs. >> >> OpenWrt has three main parts; linux kernel, software packages and >> wireless drivers. OpenWrt developers work on all of them. Consider the >> amount of code this is, and consider that all work is done by a >> handful of OpenWrt developers. If you work in software industry you >> know many people big companies hire to work on much smaller projects. >> So be thankful it works as good as it does, it is actually a miracle >> that it works as good as it does >> >> Main issue is that wifi chip manufacturers don't offer open source >> wifi drivers. If Atheros and Broadcom understood Open source as Intel >> does then you would get absolutely top speed and reliability from >> OpenWrt wifi drivers. You don't get top notch performance with OpenWrt >> because Atheros and Broadcom are choosing not release quality open >> source drivers. >> >> Linux, BSDx and OpenWrt developers can only use other means to get >> wifi devices to work, usually reverse engineering, and without support >> from wifi chip companies it is not easy to support all features, get >> awesome performance and stability. >> >> This is a long way of saying, that if performance sucks on OpenWrt you >> should blame Atheros and Broadcom for not giving you (OpenWrt >> community) high quality open source drivers! >> _______________________________________________ >> openwrt-devel mailing list >> openwrt-devel@lists.openwrt.org >> https://lists.openwrt.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openwrt-devel >> > > > > _______________________________________________ > openwrt-devel mailing > listopenwrt-devel@lists.openwrt.orghttps://lists.openwrt.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openwrt-devel > > > > _______________________________________________ > openwrt-devel mailing list > openwrt-devel@lists.openwrt.org > https://lists.openwrt.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openwrt-devel > >
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