On Tue, 21 Feb 2006, David Wright wrote:
And finally (or firstly, I've actually written these in reverse order to the way they are printed :-P), the Kernel Log section mentions the removal of non-GPL USB drivers from the Linux Kernel, with AVM getting its nose in. The sub-title for the piece: "A change in the Kernel has meant the near exclusion/removal of AVM USB devices from Linux." ("Eine Änderung im Kernel hätte beinahe das Aus für die USB-Geräte von AVM unter Linux bedeutet.")
"An employee of AVM critiscised [the change], saying that it is now not possible to provide proprietary USB-drivers; AVM must therefore stop support for its own USB devices."
There is no mention in this article of SUSE BTW, just the Linux Kernel development and AVM, although they do mention that it is possible for USB devices to be written in "userland".
This is really bad. It gives too much fuel to MS to spread more fud. I
have been watching the discussion of the FACTORY list. The biggest
problem I see with Linux is drivers and getting support for them from
commecial enterprises. I am afraid that this aids manufactures of devices
to choose not to support Linux. Look at ATI and nVidia, .... We have a
hard time getting people to provide drivers for Linux as it is now. This
has aided some driver manufactorers to say why support Linux. I had this
happen this week. A client that has been on SUSE Linux since 9.0 and was
considering upgrading to SLES and newer version of Linux had the hardware
people tell him they would not be supporting Linux in the future. He
called all worked up about my convincing him to go with Linux and now he
is not going to be able to use it because of this issue. He is now
looking for a MS consultant and going to be moving from Linux. This was
really bad timing for me.
--
Boyd Gerber