Why Don't Companies Release Specs?

Mhrmnhrm asks: "With the recent activism by the OpenBSD crew focusing on release of documentation from the likes of Adaptec, Intel, and others, I'm left to wonder: why do companies insist on believing that by denying access to the specs, they somehow gain an advantage? It's not like telling a programmer how to communicate with the underlying hardware is going to tell them how it (the PCB/silicon) was designed, so why make this information secret?"

Comments

Re:Because it would cost them money

[zymano]

Because they want to LOCK people in and not let them use any other software.

Look at the cell phone companies. Where can you find any good graphic sdk if you don't want to use java.

Same as Microsoft. All these companies admire Microsoft don't forget.

Re:Time is money, period

[shmlco]

If you don't use your own chips, you don't write drivers for them, either.

Uh huh. Never in the history of mankind has a company bought a processor from A, a ADC from B, a USB controller from C, and never had to write a driver to make that custom integration hang together.

We're not talking chips, we're talking about talking to devices that actually do something, and.... never mind. I'm talking to an idiot.