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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!newshost.telstra.net!act.news.telstra.net!psgrain!newsfeed.internetmci.com!info.ucla.edu!csulb.edu!drivel.ics.uci.edu!news.claremont.edu!muddcs.cs.hmc.edu!mmicek From: mmicek@muddcs.cs.hmc.edu (Michael J. Micek) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.apps,comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.os.linux.x,comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Why to not buy Matrox Millennium Date: 27 Mar 1996 08:04:16 GMT Organization: nil Lines: 81 Message-ID: <4jasq0$phk@jaws.cs.hmc.edu> References: <4j21ph$crr@slappy.cs.utexas.edu> <4j3muv$34m@cville-srv.wam.umd.edu> <3155FA66.167EB0E7@FreeBSD.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: muddcs.cs.hmc.edu Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.apps:13704 comp.os.linux.development.system:20059 comp.os.linux.x:27693 comp.os.linux.hardware:34446 comp.os.linux.setup:47370 comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc:301 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:2796 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:2574 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:16062 In article <3155FA66.167EB0E7@FreeBSD.org>, Jordan K. Hubbard <jkh@FreeBSD.org> wrote: >I believe in a free market economy. If a manufacturer starts annoying >some segment of its potential user base by engaging in proprietary >tactics or clubbing baby seals in its daily television commercials then >I expect some other manufacturer (like #9) to come along and show it the >error of its ways by stealing those users away with a comparable product >for which full chip masks are published on the WEB and television >commercials which feature Sally Struthers holding a rescued baby seal in >one arm and one of the VGA cards in the other. If the other >manufacturers are unable to offer a comparable product then THAT is the >real problem that needs to be addressed since it's the only thing that's >going to make someone like Matrox sit up and take notice. A bunch of >FreeBSD and Linux users squeaking on the Internet is NOT going to >accomplish that, as big as some people think the combined user base may >be (compared to the Windows markets, we're not even a registerable blip >for Matrox). Why not instead write to S3 and say "When the %^&*$@! are >you guys going to pull your thumbs out and clobber Matrox already!?" Here's a really whacked-out (and rather incoherent--sorry) idea: Wouldn't it be great if computer engineering students got together and started publishing designs for better-than-existing hardware? Maybe not complete designs, but enough so that it would be foolish for real-life hardware engineers not to make use of this publically available information. I mean, if people are willing to release GPL software, why not other kinds of intellectual "property"? I know, I know, it's whacked. It won't work because you can't fool around with a lot of test designs, like you can with software. Any joe with a computer can write software, but you have to have a microchip fab facility to create a board. There's no instant gratification. It's expensive. And I'm certainly not suggesting you give the *hardware* away for free. Just the intellectual property. But who would you sell it to? I don't know, it might also not work because hardware design is tougher than software design, just in general. OTOH, the home brew guys who started this whole mess <grin> did a lot just fooling around... (of course, they weren't competing with anybody). But if you *could* get a charitable foundation or School to sponser the necessary facilities, and a decent group to run it, well... It would be interesting to know how the income at Matrox is divided up. How much do the actual designers get? How much do the lawyers get? How much do the fabrication techs who actually produce the boards get? (I don't know too much about fabrication, so...) What if people are wasting money on patent lawyers, etc., that, if they were unnecessary, would make the boards much cheaper. I dunno. I'd hope that most of the money taken in is allready being spent on design and fabrication, but I don't know. I don't know if partial designs would make the interface more transparent. That's another reason why it might not be worthwhile even to try. I imagine DARPA wouldn't fund it. (Again, too much competition.) But somebody might. (Suddenly Heinlein's "Long Range Foundation" (who only funded projects that were ridiculously unfeasible, and consequently stayed well into the black, which meant they had to find more wild projects to fund, which ended up getting them farther into the black...) comes to mind. Too bad real life isn't like SF. (Is it?)) Being generally ignorant, I have no idea how long it would take a bunch of guys on the Net to design the world's greatest graphics board. (Not that it would be the world's greatest more than two weeks.) But, but... I just had to mention the idea. BTW, Stallman's pretty whacked, too. So I think this idea is in good company. If *you* were going to design a 3D accelerated board, how would *you* do it? -- Michael J. Micek, peripatetic philosopher. Try 'em all (Mt 8:20) mmicek@nyx.net mmicek@muddcs.cs.hmc.edu Hi! sam@butthead.colorado.edu ab496@freenet.uchsc.edu