[hcflinux] Re: [hsflinux] What about FREE Sortware and people colaboration!?!?

[Marc Boucher]

Maybe I should clarify a few things to reduce the confusion:

1) Linuxant isn't Conexant. Conexant is a semiconductor company 
producing the modem chipsets, primarily for use with Windows.
Linuxant is an independent company trying to make this technology
available to Linux users.

2) None of the money you paid to buy your low-cost modem went to Linuxant.
Instead, most of it went to:

	- Your retailer / store / mail-order company and distributors
	- Your computer / modem manufacturer

3) Only a very small portion (around or less than $5 these days) went to
Conexant (not Linuxant!) for producing the hardware chipset. But since
these are sold in very large quantities for the Windows market, Conexant can pay
developers in-house to write the required software for Windows.

4) Linuxant is a distinct company, not owned by Conexant. And since
Linuxant doesn't sell any hardware, it depends on contributions from
users to develop for Linux. This development cannot be done by the
open-source community because a significant portion of the
drivers is proprietary (patented) technology which we had to license
from Conexant, and it requires a NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) which
most open-source developers are not willing or able to sign.

5) Also, softmodem drivers are actually much more than just drivers.
In fact, they contain most of the modem's functionality (if you have installed
them under linux, run "lsmod" to see how large in size - hsfengine is around 1 meg-
they are compared to other linux modules. It costs a lot of effort and
money to develop that, which is why we cannot make it completely free.

Hope this helps to understand,

Marc

On Tue, Sep 09, 2003 at 10:04:52AM +0200, Guenole Le Gurudec wrote:
> I am totally agree with you !
> 
> -- 
> Guenole Le Gurudec
> 
> > This is really outrageous. Now, that the drivers starts to work more or less
> > fine, of course with the help of all the users that notified their problems,
> > and colaborate to develop a better driver, linuxant want to make all of us to
> > pay for download it. This a practice worse thatn all made by enterprises like
> > Microsoft and others.
> > 
> > I claim all the users not to report any problem with their products to
> > linuxant until the new policy of paying stops. It is very sad when you think
> > you've find an enterprise that really thinks on their users, people that buy
> > their products, and then use a issue like a driver to make you still spend
> > more money TO MAKE IT WORK!!!
> > 
> > Amazing...
> > 
> >       Manuel Alguacil Payán
> >       Servicio de Informática
> >       Consejería de Cultura (Sevilla)
> >       C/ San José, 13
> >       Tlfn: 95.503.64.59
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