OneAndOneIs2

Can't help but wonder how things are going in proprietary hardware manufacturer boardrooms lately.

Not long ago, they may have heard about the Linux kernel devs offering them official Linux drivers for free & under NDAs - a number of manufacturers have taken advantage of this offer, with at least one driver already having gone into the kernel as a result, and more on the way.

Then along came Dell, planning to sell Ubuntu PCs and therefore requiring hardware to at least have some Linux support. For hardware options not offered with this release, we are working with the vendors of those devices to improve the maturity and stability of their associated Linux drivers.

Even the stalwarts of the "You get open source drivers when you prise them out of our cold dead fingers" brigade are beginning to crumble - not long ago, you used proprietary drivers or you had little or no 3D acceleration. Now, of the big three graphics manufacturers, one already is open source and one has promised to be ASAP.

If you manufacture hardware and don't have it supported under Linux, even "Nobody else is doing it" isn't a valid excuse any more.

When things start to change, they do change fast, don't they?