[Ham-Linux] Take ACER Off and question on another topic

[Nate Bargmann]

* match at ece.utah.edu <match at ece.utah.edu> [2009 Jul 30 15:39 -0500]:

> Now back to Acer...  If you accept my 1% number for the Linux market share, 
> then supporting Linux on their laptops would net them an increase in sales of 
> 1%. If it were profitable to invest in development and especially support of 
> drivers for Linux, including all the various 260-odd distros, they would be 
> doing so. It is not profitable.

This is the red-herring or strawman argument I have heard for years and
it is more false now than it was 13 years ago. 

FACT:  Developing a Linux driver is no more complicated for one
distribution or 260, in FACT, what the hardware vendor does is to use
the services of the Linux Driver Project (Greg Kroah-Hartman) and have
the driver accepted into the mainline kernel tree.  The individual
distributions take care of themselves and the hardware vendor has the
Single Point of Contact with the LDP not each individual distribution.

> Or, they could support only MS, use a call-center in India staffed with 
> minimum-wage housewives who read a script from a book to provide 
> "support", and call it good. (not to disparage any of my friends in India who 
> work in call-centers!)

Again, there is no reason for the hardware vendor to deal with
individual users of whatever distributions.  If they work through the
channel that now exists, their life is no more complicated than dealing
with MS, perhaps less.  

OTOH, this doesn't take into account contractual obligations that may
prohibit such cooperation with the Linux kernel developers.

73, de Nate >>

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possible worlds.  The pessimist fears this is true."

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