[mythtv-users] What's Hauppauge up to?

[audin at okb-1.org]

On Sat, Dec 06, 2003 at 02:31:22PM -0800, Ian Forde wrote:
> On Sat, 2003-12-06 at 14:17, Myster Man wrote:
> > well actually they aren't providing support, but they did give knoppmyth
> > permision to distribute the binary drivers with their distrobution.
> 
> Yeah, but it just doesn't feel... equitable... 

	It's not.  But then how much is these days?  Especially when patents
and modern businesses are involved.

> I mean - the only thing that's being used from the binary driver set is the
> firmware.  And the ivtv project had to do its driver virtually from scratch.
> So now Hauppauge gets to say:
> 
> "Here's a piece of software that showcases what our product can do.  Try
> it out!  Never mind the fact that we won't ever write a driver for the
> OS it runs on, nor will we give the good folks who are writing their own
> any hints on registers..."
> 
> It just doesn't feel... equitable... I understand the Windows software
> listed on the page.  At least the Windows SW authors had a
> supported-by-the-vendor driver to write to that supports all (?) the
> functions of the cards.  It would be nice to see Hauppauge, as a measure
> of good faith, give at least a little assistance to the ivtv (and
> ultimately mythtv) project(s).  Wouldn't that be good for some PR?

	Modern managers don't think that far in advance.  They don't
understand what it is they're managing, so they can't make decent long-range
plans.

	In this case at least they aren't (yet) suing the ivtv and mythtv
people.

	Really, though, do you want vendor provided drivers?  In my experience
they tend to be some of the worst ones available.  They crank them out as
quickly as possible to get the hardware shipped.  They allow the vendor to
make up for hardware bugs (or, possibly worse, crappy design) with hidden
software workarounds which show up as awful performance or stability problems
later on.  And their availability for linux goes a long way towards preventing
any proper open-source driver development (look at what happened after nvidia
started providing drivers).  The only proper solution is to not buy products
from companies which won't provide programming information.  Unfortunately
that leaves several product holes unfilled.  And the linux market is not yet
large enough to make a big enough dent for the "free market" process to work.
Oh well.

	Sorry about the rant.

-- 
                                            Audin Malmin - audin at okb-1.org

It will free man from his remaining chains, the chains of gravity which still
tie him to this planet. It will open to him the gates of heaven.
				-- Wernher Von Braun