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

It goes something like this:

[vegetablespork]

Bill: I hear you're getting ready to release low level specs so the OpenBSD and Linux folks can make a driver.

Hardware Co. Rep.: That's right, Bill--figured it would be hard to go wrong increasing our potential market, at no cost to us. It's not like they can use the interface specs to build a card.

Bill: That's nice. You know, it'd be a real shame if your driver couldn't be WHQL certified, and users had to see a warning box when they ran with your card. Or worse, if there were mysterious blue screens . . .

Harware Co. Rep.: OK, I get your point, Bill. We'll cancel the release of the specs.

Nope

[zippthorne]

They already provide hamburgers to an open standard. Their product interfaces in the same way as all other hamburgers, directly with the mouth port.

Very fancy restaurants have proprietary interfaces: You are required to use specialized hooks (salad fork, etc.) to interface with the food which must be used in a specific way.

Chinese restaurants use the most difficult interface of all, but it's fairly simple and often fully documented on the chopsticks package.