[olug] OT: more Hans goodness

[Luke -Jr]

On Wednesday 09 July 2008, Kevin wrote:
> There are times that if you take the route of 'my way or the highway'
> that people will take the highway. Which is worse? Manufacturers who
> supply nothing whatsoever for Linux or manufacturers who supply only a
> binary driver?

Nothing whatsoever would be better. Then nobody who cares about Linux will buy 
it, and the manufacturer may reconsider. If it comes with a lot of systems, 
it will be reverse engineered.

On the other hand, with the manufacturer providing an illegal binary, people 
who run Linux, but don't care about the Free software ideals will use that 
instead. They will buy the unsupported hardware. They won't help in reverse 
engineering it. Those who use Free software because it is Free will be left 
with no driver, even if it is in every store-bought PC, where it might have 
otherwise been reverse engineered.