Joe wrote:
>
> I am curious why Linux uses a generic IDE/ATAPI for almost all
> cdroms (IDE/ATAPI) and Windows requires new drivers or seperate
> drivers for each drive?
>
One reason may be that it makes future bug fixing easier.
I know IDE/ATAPI is supposed to be a standard but there
is a lot of marginal hardware being pumped out by people
whose primary objective is to save a few pennies on each
unit rather than engineer it properly. People, being what
they are buy the crap because it's cheap and because
they don't know any better, and suddenly you end up with
big numbers installed in computers all over the world.
Recalling or replacing the hardware is not a palatable
option for either the manufacturer or the owner so they
chase a workaround in the software. If you have one
pure driver, do you hack it to accommodate the flaky
hardware, possibly, to the detriment of everbody else?
If you do, can you be really sure that you haven't
broken something else in the process?
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