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Re: [LUG] drivers; business models

 

Adrian Midgley wrote:
Scanner drivers...

<snip>


So we see the result when I setup a new PC for a relative, with XP on it and with new hardware for some things, but also with _old_ hardware for others - printing for instance, or when I moved one of our machines (the one with the HP scanner attached to it as it happens, and scanner software) from W98 to W2k.

Good comments, but you're seeing it from a support viewpoint (as are most in here I guess, given that the average knowledge level in this LUG is way higher than Joe Average) - from Joe's POV, "Hey, my scanner works, and I didn't have to press a button." has got to be a good thing, no? Ok, so there may be features he's missing, maybe some bundled software that comes supplied with it, but... It works...


In each case the current drivers had to be sought on the Internet, and downloaded and installed, before the system was remotely satisfactory.

Satisfactory to you, or to Joe? IME, Joe doesn't care if the colour's a little off, or he can't batch export in jpeg, or the colour depth doesn't have his particular favourite and so on - he wants his picture on the computer, that's all. (Same thing for all hardware. We're geeks, we fiddle to get the best out of things - Joe doesn't know how to nor want to fiddle.)


Criticising what's probably the world's leading manufacturer on
printers/scanners (HP) for not doing something is going to be ignored.
Two years ago HP made US$ 2 000 000 from Open Source operations. THey are unlikely to ignore that or anything that is _commercially_ associated with it.

That sounds great, until you realise that HP made $us 73,061,000,000 in 2003.[1] 73 Billion dollars. The Open Source revenue is NOTHING!



[1] Source: http://www.hoovers.com/hewlett-packard/--ID__10723--/free-co-fin-annual.xhtml


--
Simon Avery

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