From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > What we really want is not just documentation, but support > from their > > engineers. The Linux community is starting to get this in > some places. > > Yes. In many cases, the reason a company doesn't want to > release documentation is because it doesn't really exist, > except in phone calls or e-mails between the Windows driver > writer and the hardware guys. Software folks are notorious > for poor documentation. It would be unrealistic for us to > expect hardware folks to do a substantially better job.
There *are* a number of vendors who do this. The half-assed attitude of "well, some vendors gave us resistance when we wanted docs so we're going to give in to whatever they give us" is crap. The OpenBSD project has illustrated numerous times that vendors can and do respond to leverage the opposite direction, and that there are a number of vendors who *do* provide better documentation and support than others. Why do so many projects forget that there's no race for world domination and market share in BSD? That they do have the leeway to apply pressure to vendors if said vendors want their devices to ship with support in GENERIC? That it's not the vendor that benefits the BSD projects by having support, but the other way around? DS
