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From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Linux vs. FreeBSD ...
Date: Wed, 08 May 1996 20:25:57 -0700
Organization: Me
Lines: 81
Message-ID: <319165C5.58D1E2F7@lambert.org>
References: <3188C1E2.45AE@onramp.net> <318FD68B.60AD12F6@lambert.org> <4mouan$cpb@agate.berkeley.edu> <4mpch5$97t@ennui.ops.best.com> <4mplph$n1s@agate.berkeley.edu>
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Nick Kralevich wrote:
[ ... ]
] There is a distinction between hardware BUGS and BROKEN
] hardware. I am not talking about broken hardware (such as
] bad SIMMS), but rather, I am talking about are BUGS in
] hardware, such as the [1] RZ1000 chipset bug, the CMD640
] chipset bug, or the Pentium bug [2], which affect a wide
] number of people.
FreeBSD has neither of these bugs because it doesn't use
DMA from IDE drives with interrupts enabled.
So it never needed a workaround.
I was talking about IDE CDROM drives which, if you went line
by line down the ATAPI specification with a pencil, you wouldn't
be able to check off all of the "mandatory support" items.
Consider that these drives come with "Windows driver disks". They
can't use the default drivers because they don't have the ATAPI
compliant interface expected by the default drivers.
They do not function.
They are right out.
They are dead parrots.
] According to Terry, 3 out of 5 EIDE interfaces have bugs. If
] the FreeBSD core team is going to take the moral high ground
] and not try to work around those bugs ("it's a hardware problem,
] let the hardware guys fix it"), then I'm sure the Linux
] community would be more than happy to help out those users.
Not that FreeBSD triggers any of these bugs (like previous
versions of Linux did), but you are saying it's acceptable to
change the line item on the specification sheet that says
"max transfer rate" without reimbursing the user who bought
on the basis of that line item?
That's on the order of the "BusLogic upgrade offer", where
you think the controller costs you one thing, but to get
a usable controller, it actually costs you $45 more (plus
shipping both ways).
The FTC calls this "Bait and Switch" and it's illegal. Linux,
in "silently working" is an accessory after the fact.
8-).
] Of course, if they DO work around those bugs, then, by
] your definition, they are a "suspect" operating system.
FreeBSD did not have to go out of their way to not trigger the
bugs that Linux used to trigger, but had to be updated to fix.
] I am not saying that it is OK for hardware to have bugs, but rather,
] that an operating system should try to help out the unfortunate user
] who gets stuck with the buggy hardware.
To an extent.
But if no one returns the hardware, how will the vendor of the
hardware ever be punished for producing crappy hardware so as
to disincent them from making their next hardware crappy as well?
Your Sword of Damocles has two edges.
Terry Lambert
terry@lambert.org
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.