Re: [future of drivers?] a proposal for binary drivers.

[Helge Hafting]

Jan Knutar wrote:

> On Wednesday 08 March 2006 23:28, Tim Tassonis wrote:
>
>  
>
> > OS/2 died exactly because software companies didn't write closed-source 
> > software, hardware companies didn't write closed-source drivers, and IBM 
> > couldn't write it all themselves.
> >    
>
> I read somewhere that the development kit was obscenely expensive and
> effectively locked out all hobbyists and small companies.
IBM stuff may have been expensive.
There was gcc for os/2 though, which was nice for hobbyists.
The way I remember it, drivers wasn't the big problem.  The lack of drivers
could have become a problem if the lack of software was solved.  But it
wasn't - no need to drive a device for which you don't have an app . . .

Having gcc meant one could port some gpl software, which usually
originated on linux or other unixes.  But using such software on
linux was always easier, and so I switched os.

Helge Hafting
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