Well, I agree.......... to a point. What if there are in some
future time, no new LINUX compatible chunks of hardware (and the old
stuff just doesn't work anymore)?
The real problem is that these guys (manufacturers) have been locked
into only providing MS drivers by contract. If the petition hits enough
of them then they will have legal ammunition stating that there are
other OS's that they need the right to provide drivers for. From there
negotiating a release of driver specifications should be relatively
easy. But first, these manufacturers must be able to come up with legal
proof that their contracts granting them access to the MS codebase are
unconscionable due to the fact that such a contract is granting MS a
monopoly on their hardware. This petition offers up just such a legal
proof.
In any case the real problem is that there needs to be proof of
there being a need for the LINUX drivers. If people do not abuse binary
type drivers then there may be future releases of codespecs and other
data allowing for open source drivers. We must work one step at a
time............... and this may well be only the first of many steps.
Drew Northup, N1XIM
