Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I've yet to encounter a case where Linux audio is not working. Thats because just like windows, I buy hardware where the manufacturer helps write Linux drivers. I don't financially support hardware makers who don't care about me and buy from those who do, simple as.

Also hardware companies should be happy if people are trying to reverse engineer their devices to get a working driver: It menas people want to use it. Instead of trying to further lock down or obfuscate their devices they should be happy and help these folks. They are doing free work for your company.



> Instead of trying to further lock down or obfuscate their devices they should be happy and help these folks. They are doing free work for your company.

They are, but legally the situation is way less clear for companies:

- for anything involving RF communication, allowing unauthorized/unverified selection of stuff like wifi country codes can lead to illegal RF emissions

- low level assistance may touch stuff that's nominally under NDAs and expose the company to legal risk

- anything involving "jailbreaking" may lead to issues with DRM

As a result, the official policy often is "no one touches code or helps people from outside, corporate legal doesn't want to get Oracle'd".


As I said all that does is further push me to only buy from companies that support my os. I have mixed feelings about people reverse engineering hostile hardware. It helps those who mistakenly bought that hardware esp as an onramp for Windows users who just bought whatever laptop. And it's always useful to keep reverse engineering skills shrap. But on the other hand you are just helping someone who hates you, the best way to play the game is to not play it.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: