Upping The Softmodem Code Bounty -- To $20,000

Alex Pilosov writes: "I've announced a bounty for completion of softmodem code (20k$) on linmodems-discuss list. If this is successfully completed, we'll have a completely universal driver for any kind of winmodem without any proprietary code which result in all sorts of kernel version problems." Here's the full text of the announcement and conditions.

Comments

Motivation?

[gregfortune]

So, anyone know if this dude is just really really cool, or if there is some motivation to offer a bounty like this? Too bad I don't have a clue on how to go about writing modem drivers :)

Greg

high price for a modem

[htmlboy]

seems to me that $20,000 is an awful lot to pay for the ability to reliably run softmodems in linux...almost like we're trying to beat the corporations more than accomplishing the goal.

with the prevalence of high speed connections these days, i find it odd that we're seeing a big surge for a (slowly) dying technology. linux users tend to be people who value their connection enough to get dsl or a cable modem.

i guess my observations of the current state of technology are a bit skewed by living in a college town where every apartment has "T1 Ethernet" (ha), so i'd be interested in hearing what others think about the worth of modem development.

Re:high price for a modem

[Masa]

I'm a Linux user and until now I had no way to get any other kind of connection to my Linux box than modem (now I finally was able to subscribe a cable modem connection). I had to pay three times more compared to Winmodems to get a fully functional external V.90 modem.

I'm a poor university student and every penny counts. I cannot afford to *DSL connection or any other kind of high-speed connection. Also until resently it was techincally impossible to get cable modem to my apartment. So modem was the only reasonable way to get connected. And for student it is rather tempting to by cheap Winmodem rather that the real one.

And now to the point... First of all: there is still places where it is difficult/expensive/impossible to have *DSL or cable modem connections. Second: there always is a (large) group of people who want to have an Internet access but even cheapest REAL modem is too expensive. Winmodem is dirty cheap alternative but it limits user to Windows environment. That's why it's quite important to have support for cheap "hard"ware under Linux. After all, one reason to have Linux installed is the cheap price.

Yes, I'm the stupid one, who first bought a Winmodem and was tied to Windows platform before I had a chance to buy a real piece of hardware.

Re:high price for a modem

[thesolo]

Modems are dying only to the /. community.

Think about it, worldwide, there are actually VERY few broadband home connections. Modems are still far and away the most common means for accessing the internet. So if there is ever going to be a hope for getting linux on the desktop, it WILL need good softmodem support.

Besides, think of how many OEM machines in the last 5 years came with v.90 winmodems standard. The number is pretty damn high. You won't win too many converts by telling them that the first thing they need to do is buy a new modem...

Re:high price for a modem

[drinkypoo]

with the prevalence of high speed connections these days, i find it odd that we're seeing a big surge for a (slowly) dying technology. linux users tend to be people who value their connection enough to get dsl or a cable modem.

I think I can almost agree with you. Personally I believe that the best way to do is simply not to mess with winmodems. Think about it, you need a realtime thread to run the code to get good performance (or even to stay connected! in some cases anyway) and that will interfere with the operation of your computer system in a way no winmodem does with windows, simply because you are not using the DSP. As others have pointed out, using the DSP is infeasible because everyone has a different DSP and you'd have to write code for all of them. Of course, this is not impossible, but you'd need to spend more than $20k to get it, and he doesn't want it to be through DSP methods anyway.

My feelings, however, are that we should be supporting companies who develop drivers for their products on linux, even if they're not open source. Also, if you want a cheap non-winmodem, you can pick up used 33.6Kbps external modems for very cheap ($20 or so.) Sure, they're not the latest greatest fastest thing, but anyone trying to do anything which requires bandwidth with a modem of any sort is in for a nasty surprise anyway.

Supposedly some cellphone companies are now offering free unlimited internet access from their phones now (at modem speeds) via IR and such. So anyone can get a cheap connection anywhere; Plans with those companies begin at $30/mo with all the night and weekend minutes you can eat, plus free calls in your three-state area or whatever, so it's your phone and your ISP and the price starts to look reasonable. DSL and Cable begin at $40 ($30 for cable modem access if you already have cable, in my area) per month and the coverage areas are growing rapidly. Also, the satellite service (which the bastards are calling DSL, ostensibly for digital satellite link - don't they realize how bad they need a foot up their @ss for that one?) is pretty cheap, though I don't recall how cheap, and faster than ISDN anyway, although it has higher latency.

So basically, there's nowhere you can't get broadband of some sort. If you really need a modem link, you can always get a used modem, slightly slower (Most people in the boonies only get 38K or so connections anyway (when they're lucky), I usually got 31.2 out of my 33.6 modem, which is close enough) but good enough to get the basics done, download drivers and such (except nvidia's) and basically get things done. Email, light web surfing, et cetera. I used to have a UUCP feed with five groups on a 9600 baud modem, but times have changed.

So I think that supporting this technology which was lame to begin with is, of course, lame. If your foundation is stupidity, then your house will be idiotic.

P.S. Please pardon my nested parens. Then again, most of you will probably have no problem with them...

Bounty won't matter much.

[zensonic]

Regardless of the coolness factor of this bounty, the fact still remain: A GPLed softmodem driver still requires certification by the telephone companies before any device is legally connected to the telephone network using the driver.

My guesstimate are that it's much more difficult to obtain certifactions for the driver around the globe than it is to write the driver. The telephone companies are rather picky about what the allow onto their networks

Re:why is it worth 20000$?

[geomcbay]

In the great-scheme-of-things its very useful because LOTS of laptops use winmodems, and when you're 'on the go' you don't always have access to a nice ethernet-terminated connection.

As to why it is worth $20,000 to this guy personally..I have no idea?

Bountys - a great Way to fund development of OSS

[tempmpi]

I think that this bounty thing could maybe be a really good way to fund the development of opensource software.
I think it is very nice that Alex Pilosov supplies the money for this, but there could have been a better way to get the money for bountys like this one. I think there are a lot more than 20000 people that run linux on a notebook with a softmodem and like to have a piece of the software like this. If they would all have spend a dollar, this would have been a mucher nicer method of raising the money for a bounty like this.
I want a webpage that is a combination of PayPal, freshmeat and sourceforge. Where users could donate money to a bounty for a project they choose. If no one is able to reach the goal that is needed for the bounty the users get their money back.

Another reason where it could be useful.

[BlueUnderwear]

Analog modem emulation over ISDN. Indeed, the complicated part of the driver is emulating the DSP with its signal processing algorithms, whereas actually interfacing to the device is the easy part. Such an analog-over-isdn driver could be interesting in the following situations:

• You occasionnally connect to serveral providers, some analog, some isdn, and you don't want to keep around both an ISDN card and an analog modem.
• You run a small co-op ISP, and want to offer 56K access. As you probably know, end-user 56K modems only work for the client side, not for the ISP side. ISPs need different equipment, which is much more expensive, and only makes sense for large commercial ISPs. However, with ISDN, it could easily be emulated, if there was such as softmodem driver around
• Actually, the possibility of running analog modem protocol over ISDN would be an excellent testing platform for softmodem developpers: indeed, anybody good enough to write a softmodem driver would probably be to smart to have a real winmodem lying around. Which means he would have to buy one specifically for the purpose of writing this driver. With ISDN, he can use equipment which he probably already has.

Re:Bountys - a great Way to fund development of OS

[GigsVT]

No one has heard of

linuxfund.org

?

Isn't motivation obvious?

[AndyBarrow]

I would think that the motivation for something like this would be obvious. For a company to develop drivers, either for their own hardware or someone elses, would be WAY more than $20,000. That's a couple of months of contract time for one person, if you are lucky.

This way, they get the drivers they want, the OSS community gets another wrench for the toolbox, and everybody wins.

Why look a gift horse in the mouth, folks? Get coding!

Note to slashdot: communism just doesn't work

[a9]

One huge problem with open source is that there just aren't enough funds to pay the coders.

The GPL needs just a little bit of capitalism in order to raise some capital to pay for vital projects. The reason why nobody uses Linux is not because MS has them brainwashed, or because they just haven't tried it or whatnot.

It's because in real life, Linux just plain sucks for the average computer user. Maybe with a little funding, Linux could suck less.

Re:Bountys - a great Way to fund development of OS

[apilosov]

Yes, I don't expect to find someone in US who will try for the bounty. I expect a few people in developing countries to go for it.

The project will take anywhere from 6 man-months to 12 man-months by my estimates.

Re:Some facts about software modems

[apilosov]

Jamie, first I have to thank you for this very informative post which clarifies for slashdot crowd many issues involved.

Re: Working on the code
Yes, I obviously know about your work and mentioned it as one of possible bases to start off development, and I also know that it has been progressing slowly. If the bounty causes you to spend bit more time on the code (and join a team who'll do certain other pieces), that'd be the best possible outcome.

Re: Homologation
This is a tricky thing. Yes, you are right, legally, both hardware and software (in case of soft modem) must be certified for connection to phone system. I've been thinking how to handle this (as I definitely won't be able to fund certification of each individual hardware piece+software piece), however, I don't have clear handle on it.

Hopefully, individual modem manufacturers will be receptive to the idea "How about you make your modem accessable to 10 more million people at an expense of (whatever part 68 certification costs)", at no risk to your intellectual property.

I'm not even sure how (or whether?) do they certify each new revision of WinModem software. Is only software certified? (not likely!).
Is each combo of hardware+software certified (expensive!). Do manufacturers certify one version only? (most likely).

I'm going to find out, hopefully FCC will be receptive. If the latter is the case, that's the strategy we'll pursue.

One of the patents is US4,558,302

[yerricde]

I'm investigating which precisely patents are these (some of them have patent numbers, some don't).

One of these is U.S. Patent 4,558,302 on LZW compression that the V.42bis standard uses, owned by Unisys Corporation. Unisys's policy since mid-1999 has been not to license the LZW patent to free software projects.