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Date: Mon, 01 Mar 1999 09:55:40 -0800
To: alsa-devel@alsa.jcu.cz
From: "Kevin Duffey" <kduffey@inprise.com>
Subject: Re: (SB Live) Free drivers or not? (fwd)
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>For the sake of getting linux into mass acceptance (although I wonder
>aloud if that is really what the people who really love linux and pour
>their heart and sole into it really want in the end ... Careful what you
>wish for):

>1. Yes! things change in fundamental ways in the kernel and the "OS"
>such as it is, but generally for good reasons and in a sensible manner,
>not every week.  NT service packs do much the same thing in a harder to
>track manner.
>
>2. Yes you can deliver binary only software to protect your code, but
>understand that there are many linux users with unique
>setups/hardware/platforms who have multiple computers in their
>house/life and if only works on one, they may keep looking
>
>3. If you release a neat package in binary only, be prepared for some
>bored college programmer/group to mimic it.  

Ok..I do have to say something here. I am fully enjoying playing with
Linux, learning it, and I do see its much more stable and powerful than NT
any day of the week. However, there IS a problem that I believe is going to
keep mainstream developers away from Linux. That is from what I have been
reading, a developer needs to support MANY setups with one app. This is
crazy for the most part. I understand Linux is a liberating OS that has no
ties to a standardization of any sort. However, one thing I firmly believe
is that if Linux is trying to be targeted as the future OS, there will have
to be some standards in place!  ALSA is one up and coming standard. As long
as it works with ALL possible configurations, then it can become a
standard. But you can have something be a standard that only works with one
version of one library. 

I may not understand the development process under Linux very well yet. Is
it possible to write an app for X and know that 3 years down the road..it
will still work with X? Or is that it is more likely it wont work in 6
months due to some bug fixes, a patch, and a new version release that
"changes" how X works? The one thing MS Windows has going for it is
backwards compatibility. Its nice to know when you buy software, it will
always work on all new versions. Ofcourse..thats not to say MS themselves
dont add bugs to the OS which cause the program to crash. That happens all
the time. But, I am saying, while I dont want to see Linux ever so close
ended as Windows is, it would be very nice to see some sort of
standardization for specific areas of computing, such as multimedia, hard
drives, scanners, printers, etc. The idea would be to make sure once these
drivers are in place, new versions will not break apps using the old ones.
Otherwise, if every few weeks, or months, a new version came out that did
this, all apps using the old set would have to be recompiled and
redistributed. While us hackers and developers have no problem downloading
the latest fixes, updating, etc. That will NEVER fly with end users such as
home users that just want to play some games, or run a financial program. A
LOT of people LOVE hearing "the latest and greatest." I have so many
friends that no nothing about computers, but because they got a "faster"
one than I, or because they got more memory, etc..they brag about how great
it is. I have seen this in the software industry too. People that no
nothing love to tout about the latest Office suite they got, and what it
does, etc. People LOVE new things, and are willing to pay to upgrade, have
it, or for someone to do it for them. There are WAAAAY more followers than
doers in this world, and the majority of end users are followers. They hear
a new version is coming out and they just have to have it. In the Linux
world, if it reaches a wide-spread desktop in the future, it cant be
breaking old libraries and have all these people upgrade to the latest OS
but find (usually after they upgraded and cant go back) that most of their
software wont work anymore. That will definitely not allow Linux to
infiltrate the MS windows desktop. 

Then again, I dont know if Linus and the Linux OS aims to do that or not. I
would hope so..just to break the MS empire. But who knows.



Kevin Duffey
kduffey@inprise.com

