But I still believe the same principles apply,..even if most people don't
Things have changed a lot since then, but after all said and done,From: Installing Debian Linux 1.1 from Floppy Disk
About Copyrights and Software Licenses
Windows-specific Hardware
A disturbing trend is the proliferation of Windows modems and printers. In
some cases these are specially designed to be operated by the Microsoft
Windows operating system and bear the legend Made expecially for
Windows-based computers. This is generally done by removing the embedded
processors of the hardware and shifting the work they do over to a Windows
driver that is run by your computer's main CPU. This strategy makes the
hardware less expensive, but the savings are often not passed on to the user
and this hardware may even be more expensive than equivalent devices that
retain their embedded intellegence.
a
You should avoid windows-specific hardware for two reasons. The first is
that the manufacturers do not generally make the resources available to
write a Linux driver. Generally, the hardware and software interface to the
device is proprietary, and documentation is not available without a
non-disclosure agreement, if it is available at all. This precludes its
being used for free software, since free software writers disclose the
source code of their programs. The second reason is that when devices like
these have had their embedded processors removed, the operating system must
perform the work of the embedded processors, often at real-time priority,
and thus the CPU is not available to run your programs while it is driving
these devices. Since the typical Windows user does not multi-process as
intensively as a Linux user, the manufacturers hope that the Windows user
simply won't notice the burden this hardware places on their CPU. However,
any multi-processing operating system, even Windows 95 or NT, is degraded
when peripheral manufacturers skimp on the embedded processing power of
their hardware.
You can help this situation by encouraging these manufacturers to release
the documentation and other resources necessary for us to program their
hardware, but the best strategy is simply to avoid this sort of hardware.---snip--
The last update of this document was made on Wed May 29 14:39:41 PDT 1996
Copyright of This Document
Copyright 1996 Bruce Perens. This document may be distributed under the
terms of the GNU General Public License.
I try to avoid anything from Microsoft, not just hardware that depends on their products,
but any software and programs from them.
