[driverloader] license fees

[Joe Martine]

While I'm all for free drivers/software/etc, I am also pragmatic about 
the whole thing.  I've read in plenty of other places just how difficult 
these vendors have been, for whatever reason, WRT Linux support.  
Granted, Linux isn't a large market segment yet, but if another company 
is offering a way to easily enable support for your products...

Since it has become fairly obvious that certain vendors - Broadcom in 
particular, I've personally tried talking with them - aren't going to 
provide the support, I'm fine with paying a small amount for this 
driver, since it lets me actually use the hardware I bought.  I try very 
hard not to HAVE to use something like this, by researching my purchases 
ahead of time, but sometimes it is unavoidable.  In my particular case 
Linksys apparently changed the driver chipset from a Linux-supported one 
to Broadcom just weeks before I bought my card.  (Side note - why to 
vendors keep the same blasted part number for something that is 
completely different?!?)  Or, in your case, the laptop vendor only 
provides a particular model of card in the first place.

That said, I thought for some time before this announcement came out 
what I would be willing to pay.  I have to say, $20 is right up at the 
high end of my final price range.  When the card I bought only cost $65 
in the first place, I'm paying an additional 30% just to be able to use 
it.  If I was buying the card now, I wouldn't do the deal.  I may not 
now.  If the price had been $10, I wouldn't have thought twice about 
it.  At $20, I would really have to have a use for this card (which I 
don't at the moment), and it would have to work fully (WEP doesn't yet 
for me).

I do hope the manufacturers and vendors wind up supporting this, at 
least partially.  If they don't I am perfectly willing to pay something 
for it, it is very useful.  But I do believe $20 is high, particularly 
when each license is only good for one particular card.

Joe


Alexander Ellberg wrote:

> Hi Linuxant Team,
>
> with all due respect but this course of action really disappoints me. I
> didnt pay almost 1800$ for a notebook only to realize that the only option
> to make the Centrino components work with my linux  system is to pay 
> (again)
> 20 bucks for a proprietary driver loader. I have chosen linux besides 
> other
> benifits for the reason that i didnt have to pay for it.
> Linux is open source and therefore its drivers should also be 
> available without further
> costs.
> Dont get me wrong but i believe that Linuxant is betraying the
> community with this marketing strategy. If you guys really have such a 
> close
> relationship to the hardware vendors it should be possible to make the
> driverloader-concept available without any license fees.
>  
> Your advantage is the lack of official hardware drivers for linux and 
> the unability of the
> vendors to improve the situation. Intel promised the Centrino owners to
> develop a working driver structure for all compentens of the system yet
> there isnt even a beta available. I really hope Linuxant is going to find
> another more consumer friendly option to release their driverloader
> architecture. Until this moment i will have to wait for the native intel
> Centrino drivers.
>
> Sincerely
>
> A. Ellberg
>