Re: GPL vs non-GPL device drivers

[Jeff Garzik]

Dave Jones wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 14, 2007 at 10:46:13PM -0800, v j wrote:
>  > Using our source code would not benefit anybody but
>  > our competitors.
>
> This excuse has been given time and time again, and repeatedly been 
> proven false.  And as soon as one of your competitors makes their
> drivers open, guess which one gets 1000+ free developers working
> on their code ?


Customers also like to buy hardware where they -know- support will not 
disappear in a year, when the vendor releases a new chip.

In fact, in some markets, the engineers who wrote the code have often 
moved to the next project, by the time the customers actually get their 
hands on the end result.  Open source means that problems found in real 
world field testing can be readily debugged and fixed.

	Jeff


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