greed (was)

[Paul Boddie]

"Brandon Van Every" <vanevery at 3DProgrammer.com> wrote in message news:<fFF%9.6634$ek4.633688 at newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net>...
> 
> The problem with freeware / open source / volunteer mentality is it only
> concerns itself with the needs of the hobbyist engineers.  Ease of use is
> terribly low on the list of priorities.

This isn't always true, but then perhaps you consider GNU autoconf to
be the "poster child" of open source software.

> Marshalling companies to ensure driver availability and compatibility just
> doesn't happen.  That's a main part of the job Microsoft does, BTW.

I believe Microsoft's job is to strongarm various vendors not to
support other operating systems. Consequently, the myth that "there's
no demand for anything else" persists amongst the chipset producers.
That situation is changing slowly, and when people complain that
Linux, for example, doesn't support "proprietary device X", they fail
to appreciate that it's a minor miracle that it does support
"proprietary devices Y and Z" with little or no support from the
vendor.

Hopefully, we'll see more openness from chipset producers and more
willingness from systems vendors in the future, possibly resulting
from more engagement from Linux (and other OS) companies.

Paul