From: ctne_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Chris Newbold) Subject: Re: Why not include patches for Diamond Stealth in kernel? Date: 8 Feb 1993 17:03:33 GMT
In <ellis.729103048@nova> ellis@nova.gmi.edu (Stew Ellis) writes:
>badger@phylo.life.uiuc.edu (Jonathan Badger) writes:
[text proposing adding config option for Diamond Stealth to kernel deleted]
>I am against this. I believe it is alright for Diamond owners to exchange
>information that helps bail each other out of having made a bad decision,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Well, I'm glad to here that you are Mr. KnowItAll and always purchase the
right hardware the fist time around. And that you always have the funding
to do so.
>perhaps before they heard about the problems with XFree86. I think to
>include the patches in the Linux or 386bsd kernel's or as part of the
>official configuration options would serve to encourage the ill-conceived
>proprietary behavior of Diamond and reduce the incentive of people to
>protest to Diamond and its dealers.
What makes you think that the general computing public has any interest
at all in protesting Diamond, et. al.? In the world of DOS/Windows, the
Stealth is a great card. Don't go slapping your reprehensible politically
correct computing attitude on me.
How were we, the mere peons of computing, supposed to know that the Stealth
was a "bad thing?" Maybe we all should have asked you first... Besides, the
Stealth was one of the very first S3 cards available at the time most of
us purchased them.
>It is kind of incongruous to think about running a free OS on proprietary
>hardware, no matter how cheap that hardware is. The growth of free UNIXes
>depends on the growth of free programming interfaces such as NFS, RPC,
>POSIX, the graphics chips (including accelerators) with published APIs, free
>X (Xlib, Xt, Xaw, Xview, OLIT). For the same reason I completely fail to
>understand the (not-too-frequent, thank god) question about getting Motif
>running under Linux or 386bsd.
I agree that open systems and standards are the "right" way to go about things,
but having used Linux now for nearly eight months, I get the feeling that
one of the goals the project has evolved towards is making Unix more accessable
to average computer users.
One way that we are achieving this is the inclusion of device drivers for
the most popular hardware. Judging by the number of requests for help
with the Stealth, I'd say it's popular. I'll be damned before I allow your
holier-than-thou attitude to keep me from using Linux.
>As the reading material about the GNU project frequently asserts, remember
>free is not the same as inexpensive or cheap.
Why, then, should I have to shell out more money to get politically correct
hardware to run my free OS?
>If people want to encourage proprietary efforts and ultimately higher prices
>then patronize proprietary UNIX and X vendors, but do not constantly clutter
>up Usenet News with your requests to compromise the integrity of the great
>efforts of people like Linus, the binary distribution developers, the
>hundreds of people developing and porting packages of free source, and
>particularly the Xfree team.
Why don't *you* stop cluttering up News with *your* snotty, elitist
attitudes and go back to your blackboard?
I don't assume to speak for Linus, the binary people and the Xfree people as
you have here, but I don't think that adding two BIOS calls to the startup code
is going to curse the whole project.
By following your morals here, we would be no better than companies like
Diamond. We are all developing this OS for our own use, and so I think
we should add the features that we think will make the best, most usable
OS possible. If this means adding a workaround for a dippy card like the
Diamond, well so be it.
>Another related issue is that we should not patronize vendors or
>manufacturers who show no understanding of the world beyond DOS and WINDOZE.
See above, Mr. KnowItAll...
-Chris "Let's add the Diamond patches" Newbold
-- >>>> Chris Newbold <<<< * "If you fool around with a thing for very long you * University of Rochester * will screw it up." * Disclaimer: "All warranties expire upon payment of invoice." ctne_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu * uhura.cc.rochester.edu!ctne_ltd@uunet