From: mod@westford.ccur.com (Michael O'Donnell 508-392-2915) Subject: Re: Free software and the future of support for Diamond products Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1992 03:01:48 GMT
mem@mv.mv.com (Mark E. Mallett) writes:
>A few years ago, when I was working as an editor for a magazine, I
>acquired an Irwin tape drive with (apparently) an ST506 interface.
>Irwin (and this after a LOT of calls and even some US mail) refused
>to sell or otherwise provide me with any information needed to write
>a driver for the thing. They did offer, however, to write a driver
>under contract.
>
>Needless to say, it sits rusting somewhere, and I don't intend to
>purchase anything with that name on it.
Damn straight! The people at Irwin Magnetics treated me the
same way, acting like they had a collective chemical imbalance
or something, as if the entire world was out to get them and
their lives depended on keeping their interface secrets. Since
I was evaluating their products to see if an OEM agreement made
sense for my employer-at-the-time, I made an enthusiastically
negative recommendation. I have made a point of not doing any
business with Irwin ever since, so I don't know if they still
act the same way, or even if they're still in business...
I recently heard conflicting stories about the folks who make
those little Colorado tape drives that connect to the PC floppy
controller; a friend said they won't tell you anything, but a
computer store tech said they were reasonable folks. I haven't
gotten around to checking it out for myself, yet. Does anybody
know enough about how to program those drives to enable me to
write a device driver?
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Michael O'Donnell mod@westford.ccur.com uunet!masscomp!mod
Concurrent Computer Corporation Westford, MA (508)392-2915
NOTE: Opinions I express are unlikely to be those of my employer.
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