Linux device driver project needs more unsupported devices to work on?

[Darrin Chandler]

On Sun, Oct 28, 2007 at 01:19:44PM -0700, Dazed_75 wrote:
> In fact, it IS a primary goal of the project to "create a proper GPLv2
> Linux kernel driver as an end result".

For certain values of "proper." There's a Spirit vs Letter of the law
issue here, and it seems to me that Greg Kroah-Hartman is firmly in the
Letter camp, giving no thought to the Spirit part.

> That may not be inconsistent with signing an NDA to get information on
> which to build such a driver which may not need to use some of the
> information provided by the hardware maker.

Then the vendor can easily not release the information that isn't
needed, and not require an NDA.

Given what you say above, the *absolute* best scenario is a readable,
maintainable open source driver. Not bad, but it's only the best
case. It's less good than the vendor releasing specs, because driver
source code is only one implementation, may not include all
functionality, may be incorrect in some particulars, etc. And that
becomes the whole spec document for future maintainers.

> That would depend on the terms of the NDA which would be an individual
> negotiation with each vendor.  It is hard to see this an a bad thing.
> Worst that can happen is that the project and the vendor do not come
> to terms leaving everyone in the same boat they are in now.

You are assuming that software developers in general are always going to
recognize and refuse bad terms from vendors.

No, the worst thing that can happen is that someone signs an NDA and
produces a driver. That person has put me out in the cold by a) not
delivering a driver/specs for me to use (because I'm using flavor $Y
instead of flavor $X), and b) setting a precedent with that vendor and
other vendors to only give information under NDA.

-- 
Darrin Chandler            |  Phoenix BSD User Group  |  MetaBUG
dwchandler at stilyagin.com   |  http://phxbug.org/      |  http://metabug.org/
http://www.stilyagin.com/  |  Daemons in the Desert   |  Global BUG Federation