From: cls@truffula.sj.ca.us (Cameron L. Spitzer) Subject: Re: Is 3c509 driver there yet? Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1993 04:44:35 GMT
In article <240eu3$7tp@perot.mtsu.edu> root@perot.mtsu.edu (System PRIVILEGED Account) writes:
>In <9308032322.17@rmkhome.UUCP> rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly) writes:
>>SCO ODT 3.0 does not have a driver for the 3c509 yet. And I don't think
>>that it is available for any other Intel based UNIX.
>>3COM supplies MSDOS drivers to sell their cards to the largest audience.
>>They don't do UNIX.
>Drivers for the 3C509 are available for USL 386/486 Unix System 4 Release 4.2.
>They are from USL/Univel. I know we use them.
We (3Com) do UNIX. The program manager for the 3C5[027]9 products told me
he estimates less than 5% of our Adapters go into Unix boxes.
The proportion of our driver effort that goes into UNIXes is probably (I'm guessing)
much higher than their current market share.
If thousands of customers suddenly showed up at the door waving bags of money
demanding a Linux driver, you can bet it would show up on the
"NAD new product funnel" chart the next day.
(It would probably show up in the newspaper too,
"Linux users riot at Bayfront Plaza, market analysts puzzled" :-)
But that hasn't happened *yet*. Our customer service department is *not*
getting calls about Linux, according to the manager there. (Yesterday there
was an amusing false alarm: we get inquiries about LYNX now and then.)
Meanwhile, I received at home a first cut at a 3C509 driver Friday afternoon,
and I am trying to figure out enough about drivers to help out with it.
(This is going slowly because I never got Xfree86 running here.
I may have a hardware problem that *nothing else* activates. I'm making
do with vile.) Stay tuned!
Cameron at home. I am not an official 3Com spokesperson.
3Com, UNIX, and LYNX are trademarks. Is Linux? I hear there's a trademark
speculator in Australia who registers likely words and then sells them back
to their surprised rightful owners.