Journal molarmass192's Journal: Linux: 10 Reasons why HW Vendors Don't Provide Linux Drivers
This is just a discussion piece. The idea is to list the top reasons why many hardware vendors do not provide Linux drivers for their hardware. Although there is no blanket answer for this question, the following list is my first crack at it:
1) There are already open source drivers for the chipsets used in the products
2) They have no Linux trained engineers to write and support the drivers in the first place
3) They are afraid of the GPL'd nature of Linux
4) The drivers contain 3rd party code and the 3rd party will not approve a Linux platform release.
5) They don't believe that providing a Linux driver will have a material impact on sales
6) They don't want to risk angering MS and risk loosing access to driver bundling and/or early software releases
7) The drivers rely heavily on infrastructure built into Windows (ie. Win-Modem drivers)
8) They are reselling rebranded 3rd party hardware
9) They prefer to release technical specifcations and let the community build open source drivers that can be directly incorporated into the kernel source tree
10) They are working on drivers but have not released them to the public
This is not meant to be a comprehensive list but I believe it covers most of the reasons I've heard either in person or via postings. I didn't want to get into rebuffing any of these points since that could get very verbose. These points are just here for discussion purposes.
1) There are already open source drivers for the chipsets used in the products
2) They have no Linux trained engineers to write and support the drivers in the first place
3) They are afraid of the GPL'd nature of Linux
4) The drivers contain 3rd party code and the 3rd party will not approve a Linux platform release.
5) They don't believe that providing a Linux driver will have a material impact on sales
6) They don't want to risk angering MS and risk loosing access to driver bundling and/or early software releases
7) The drivers rely heavily on infrastructure built into Windows (ie. Win-Modem drivers)
8) They are reselling rebranded 3rd party hardware
9) They prefer to release technical specifcations and let the community build open source drivers that can be directly incorporated into the kernel source tree
10) They are working on drivers but have not released them to the public
This is not meant to be a comprehensive list but I believe it covers most of the reasons I've heard either in person or via postings. I didn't want to get into rebuffing any of these points since that could get very verbose. These points are just here for discussion purposes.
