Ubuntu is not free.

[Derek Broughton]

Ouattara Aziz wrote:

>> 
>> They don't even need to invest the time & money to produce the drivers if
>> they provide a decently documented API - then the linux base will gladly
>> provide the drivers if they want/need the hardware.
> 
> You are right. My very question is : Why don't they release documented
> API ? I don't see what they will loose when giving that.
> 
The stated reason is usually something to the effect that it would expose
their trade secrets.  I simply don't think they really reason it out
fully - to avoid exposing those secrets, you can embed the tricky stuff in
the hardware/firmware and the extra time & effort would be offset by fewer
resources required for driver development.  The driver developers would be
happier to see a clean simple API, anyway.
-- 
derek