[ltp] Re: ACP modem driver comment

[William van Zwanenberg]

At 01:32 PM 1/4/00 -0500, you wrote:
>
>
>
>>>
>Why the reluctance on their part? Afterall, they've released instructions
>for installing RH6.1 on a 600e on their website, you'd think they would
>then assist said users to go online .
>
>Is it just that they'd prefer us all to be using Windoze?
><<
>
>The main problem is that the ACP Modem is no longer under active
>development. Developing ACP Modem drivers for Linux would call for
>additional $$ that were not budgeted. As a result, it becomes difficult to
>justify the expense.
>
>Which leads to the question, "Why not just open-source the ACP Modem
>driver?" The primary answer: There is much intellectual property in the
>source code, not all of which is owned by IBM. Open sourcing it would be a
>legal nightmare.
>
>I would not say that there is *no* possibility of us developing an ACP
>Modem driver for Linux. Certainly there are numerous individual users who
>want ACP Modem support, and thanks to Bill Mair I have a fairly lengthy
>list of those users. :-)
>
>IBM wants to do the right thing with Linux. However, we have to carefully
>choose where to spend our development $$. Since the newer ThinkPads use
>Lucent modems, and since we don't have big customers asking for Linux
>support for ThinkPads with ACP modems, it initially seems to make more
>sense to spend our money to get the newer machines working, rather than
>spending it on retro-fitting older hardware. That, of course, is the
>on-paper view, which may differ somewhat from reality.
>

If the issue is fundamentally to do with not having the required cash as
you seem to be implying, why not create a driver and then charge people for
downloading it off your FTP site?

I know such a move would be unpopular amongst those of us to to subscribe
to the view that all software should be open-source and free (myself
included), but I feel sure that provided the charge made wasn't
exhorbitant, that there are enough thinkpad users with ACP modems installed
to make it financially worthwile for IBM and the revenue generated would
more than cover the possible development costs.

I for one would be happy to pay for a driver so that it would forever
liberate me from using Mr Gates wretched software. 



 
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