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More on OpenBSD 3.7 Release
putko writes "As previously reported, OpenBSD 3.7 is released. Here's some interviews with the people behind the release about the new features, including information about which companies are complying with requests for documentation and permission to freely distribute required firmware, and which are not. Ralink Tech and Realtek 'GOOD,'Intel 'BAD.'
The next time I build/buy a wireless product, I'll want Realtek or Ralink Tech inside -- because getting software to work with it will be easier. Ralink Tech and Realtek are Taiwanese, by the way."
"An employee suggested to me that we load 3.7 on a few machines here as an evaluation. [...] I made the employee uninstall 3.7 from the machines and lets just say he's not with us anymore."
You kicked an employee out because an evaluation that he suggested didn't work out? That is, pardon my French, completely fucked. The whole reason you do evaluations is so that you don't end up in a position where new products put people's job on the line.
Apart from anything else, from now on if an employee suddenly discovers a product that at a stroke will double productivity, halve costs and save small kittens from drowning, do you think they're going to tell you about it? No, they're going to hide behind conformity, in the hope that that way they'll keep their jobs.
Congrats, you've singlehandedly halted improvement of your company's computing infrastructure. I'm sure it'll mean far less trouble for you, right up to the point where an innovative competitor buys you up and fires everyone.
For the love of God, please learn to spell "ridiculous"!!!
It still costs very little to supply the information necessary to create a driver. According to the interview, they came up with a wireless driver within a week of getting specs. It is rough and work is ongoing but there is an OpenBSD Ralink driver now. There is little good reason to slather secret sauce over this information. The FOSS kernel projects are perfectly capable of developing their own drivers given a few sheets of info that costs little to provide.
Don't bitch about cheap fucks when the very license of the software encourages mass raping on a financial and IP scale.
What you don't seem to realize is that if the license says "hey, take this and do whatever you want" then it's not raping -- it's encouraged. Just because you think they should behave in a certain way doesn't mean they're obligated to, nor do the developers expect them to. Otherwise, the developers would have released the code under a different license. Now go read the GPL three times and say five hail Stallmans.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Except that there are some of us who do not use OpenBSD but consider it as probably the best indicator of hardware quality and the quality of what the support will be for Linux and even Windows. Even to the point of using OpenBSD support as a litmus test for Windows hardware.
Put it this way. If the hardware gives OpenBSD troubles, how much do you want to risk that the troubles affect ONLY OpenBSD? Conversely, if OpenBSD has no troubles supporting the hardware, any troubles elsewhere are at least fixable. OpenBSD may be a small niche, but it is a niche that carries a lot more weight than its numbers would suggest.