[ltp] Re: IBM/Lenovo policy on Linux ThinkPad support, vs. competition

[Shem Multinymous]

Hi Pavel,

On 10/12/06, Pavel Machek <pavel@ucw.cz> wrote:
> They claim that SMAPI interface is not supposed to be stable... so
> they do not want to document it.

Who does?
Many years ago they used to document the old-style (function pointer)
SMAPI interface, but don't longer do so for the new-style (SMM mode)
interface, even though it seems to have remained nicely compatible for
many years. And it does have a well-defined "function not supported"
return code.


> I do not think they will say anything :-(. We are talking at wrong
> level.

So it would seem. The lack of propagation to the right levels is,
well, an interesting property of corporate culture.


> I have (had?) such contacts in HP... I expect I could get "hey, this
> is bios bug" contacts at IBM,

Good, let's start with these:
http://thinkwiki.org/wiki/Embedded_Controller_Firmware#Firmware_issues
+ linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org .

  Shem