On 4/25/05, Mike McMullin
No the blame lies with the hardware manufacturers, bottom line, it's their product not M$'s. M$ is one operating system that runs on PC's not the only OS that runs on PC's.
But this is the world of business. Global business. The M$ corporation is very powerful. They can afford to think in terms of years down the line strategy wise. If a smaller company does not dance to the M$ boys tune they can make business very difficult for them. Yes, you are quite right when you state that M$ is not the only OS to run on PC's, but what is the percentage of PC's sold that don't have M$ operating software on them? It is also only a tiny percentage of users who ditch M$ and use something else - such as SuSE Linux. It's an unfortunate, sometimes unpalatable truth but money talks. However, that does not mean we give in. I personally have added to the weight of others before me and petitioned the likes of Canon into writing drivers for Linux for the hardware that they make. I currently have a LiDE 50 scanner that is not 'yet' supported by SANE (one day hopefully it will be according to the guy writing drivers in this are). If I had known at the time that I would be obtaining SuSE only a few months after getting the scanner I would purchased something else. I have told the sales team at Canon this. I have also told them that no matter how good a product is, if it is not supported by Linux then I don't bother with it and I am not the only one. I strongly believe that this is the way forward but we all need to write to the manufacturers stating our desires. It's no good maoning about on mailing lists or other forums, do something. -- Take care. Kevan Farmer 34 Hill Street Cheslyn Hay Staffordshire WS6 7HR