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On 9/13/07, Tom Potts <tompotts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > It depends how well the driver is written - it could be anywhere from > > "slightly encrypted" to "complete and utter gibberish". Having the spec > > available would make life a lot easier for any free software developers > > working on the driver. > But when it boils down to it at some point it has to move the data through the > FGP or PCMCIA bus or whatever - watch that closely and you'll get some of the > spec. Write gibberish code and you'll have a shit slow/buggy driver and your > competition can still look at the interface. > When I developed M$ code I could download a debug version of windows for > developing/debugging drivers - not sure about now - and use it to pick apart > just about anything. Lets be honest, if you were the competition and you were capable of making similar devices the chances are you would firstly understand the hardware/driver to a fair degree and also the chances are you would have access to bus analysis/debuggers etc and could probably reverse to a very good degree what you are looking at. Releasing the spec only helps joe public if they are creating there own driver or trying a home brew project etc. I can't see how it helps the (real serious) competition at all, it only helps others use the devices in additional ways which equates to more units sold ... profit! Robin -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html