A- On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 1:07 AM, augustin <sane at overshoot.tv> wrote:
> I believe in wallet advocacy: if we only had a reliable and objective > assessment of the linux-(un)friendliness of hardware manufacturers, Linux > users across the globe could be encouraged to buy from certain manufacturers > rather than from others. To be effective, this should be a concerted effort > based on facts rather than hearsay (the kind that is spread in forums and user > mailing lists by people who don't really know). Support from a maker is a bitmap: 6: Provides FOSS drivers (or pays FOSS devels to write) 5: Provides Unencumbered Documentation 4: Gives hardware to outside FOSS developers 3: Loans hardware to outside FOSS developers 2: Provides Encumbered (NDA) Documentation 1: Provides proprietary drivers for one or more platforms Different makers actually have different divisions, which might do different things: Buying an expensive scanner will get you loaner hardware and docs. Buying a cheap scanner will get you ignored, cause you are talking to two different groups. I will only speak to the companies I have worked with: 1. Fujitsu USA paid me to add some enhancements to the sane-fujitsu driver, and gave me hardware and docs. I even spoke with a couple of engineers over the years. However, they were unable to help when I asked for docs about the Epson-based (epjitsu) small machines. Fujitsu bitmap: 111110, epjitsu bitmap: 000000. Stark difference, no? 2. Canon USA loaned me hardware so I could reverse engineer their DR series machines, even though they were holding the docs I needed. After I developed the driver, they released a competing closed driver that covers fewer models and runs on fewer platforms :( DR series bitmap: 000101. Canon of India has recently provided funds and documentation for us to improve support for their least expensive model: 110000. However, IIRC, 'sane-pixma' driver was completely reverse engineered: 000000. See- Three completely different responses from the same 'company'. 3. Kodak loaned me a very, very expensive scanner for over a year to write the sane-kodak driver. They gave me docs, access to engineers, and worked one of my suggestions back into their firmware! bitmap: 110100 But then, they released a closed driver for a few of their smaller machines, which only runs on a few platforms, and tried to make it sound open by word-smithing. 000001. The take-home here is that companies are people too. The cannot be rated or measured to an objective standard, and they cannot be expected to react logically, even when presented with a problem with a single obvious solution :) Perhaps I have become jaded, but there is not enough buying power in the Linux community to make a blip in the average scanner maker's sales numbers. It might be a fine way to reinforce existing behaviour of good makers. If you want to change the bad ones, better luck will be had with convincing a human with some power. People make the decisions, not spreadsheets. allan -- "The truth is an offense, but not a sin"
