> > So, if you have the hardware, you can do a valuable service to yourself
> > and others by joining an open-source driver project, or starting one,
> > for that furschlugginer card. Look around on web pages with a search
> > engine, or check newsgroups, or thumb through the listings at
> > sourceforge. We are not helpless users to be served, here, we are
> > people who can and will seize control over our own lives and protect our
> > own freedoms.
You know, this is a nice utopian idea. I once bought a scanner
thinking I could help reverse engineer a Linux driver. But it wasn't
easy and it seemed a waste of my time. I helped contribute to support
in `cdrecord' by dragging some specs out of Sony.
But a display driver? Come on. Do you see a project for a
reverse-engineered TNT series driver? I couldn't find any and I'm not
about to start one. These things are getting as complicated as CPUs.
I think the consensus is that reverse engineering these things is
rather too much difficulty.
Instead of hoping to write drivers, I now petition manufacturers to
should supply linux drivers, ideally open sourced, but at the very
least, robust and well-supported. I think that's a more realistic
position.
- D.
