> On Sat, 7 Nov 1998, Gerard Roudier wrote:
>
> >
> > On Sat, 7 Nov 1998, Matthias Andree wrote:
> >
> > > On Sat, Nov 07, 1998 at 12:47:59AM +0100, Ricardo Galli Granada wrote:
> > > > According to Hallowen II, 80% of the PCs have an adaptec. So, 80% of Linux
> > > > users are happy last days with new adaptec drivers from Doug.
> > >
> > > *sigh* why are they spending so much money on SCSI adapters while good
> > > NCR/Symbios (53C8xx) solutions are in many cases slightly faster, have
> > > better Linux support... but that's not my topic.
> >
> > Speaking about quantity of resources for 53c8xx Linux support, that's
> > probably no more true and perhaps haven't been ever true.
> > Only speaking for my modest contribution to Linux, it is authentic free
> > software developped in my free time and not gratis commercial software.
> > My boss pay me for developping commercial software that is developped
> > under Linux but targetted to commercial platforms and he sells this
> > software, but Linux hacking happens at home.
>
> Ummm...wording this the way you did makes it sound as though the aic7xxx
> driver has been commercially developed. It never has. My work has been a
Your driver shares the so-called 'firmware' and associated tools with
the FreeBSD aic7xxx driver which seems extermally well maintained. It
is a resource and may-be it is the result of an independant contribution,
may-be it is not. I donnot know, but you probably know.
> matter of free-time investment all along with the exception of the last
> few days where I worked on company time to get this done. When I was at
> DialNet, I was on call 24x7 for 2 years and 10 months straight with only 2
> real breaks, one for ALS in 97 and one for linux expo in 98. I did my
> aic7xxx driver work whenever I could. When you are on call and expected
> to fix whatever problems 24x7, you can't really draw a line between
> "free-time at home" and "work". Especially when you worked from home
> anyway.
I have followed your effort for the Linux aic7xxx driver and I really
think you did a great work.
My concern is a more general problem:
All these $$ for Linux may lead to too much contributions by commercial
companies and to fiew independant contributions, because:
1 - Independant contributors have less time and resources.
2 - If the work is done by companies, independant contributor get useless,
and useless things generally disappear.
Now, if suddenly, for whatever reason, these companies will decide to stop
their linux $$ support, it may happen that independant contributors will
not be enough or have enough knowledge of Linux in order to maintain it
alive.
On the other hand, $$ may stear Linux in a so evil direction that some
famous contributors may decide to give up the project, just not to feel
them as idiot for the rest of their life.
Regards,
Gerard.
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/