Trident Micro Changes Policy Toward XFree86 275
Alex writes: "According to Egbert on the Xpert Xfree86 mailing list, Trident Microsystems, who makes video chipsets for low end PC's and notebooks, has changed its policy towards open source developers. Get the details here."
If you want to email Trident Micro Public Relations, please be polite! Flaming will only hurt the chances that Trident will reverse this decision.
what i got (Score:0, Interesting)
Oh wow, no more support for Trident chipsets. (Score:0, Interesting)
- A.P.
Trident is still making chipsets? (Score:3, Interesting)
Man, the last trident video card I saw was PCI... With all the major brands going under, I wouldn't have expected Trident to last.
What do they expect to get from keeping their specs private?? It's not like they are the leading chipset maker, and other companies are attempting to steal some secrets.
Slashdot and flames (Score:3, Interesting)
Please enlighten me (Score:3, Interesting)
My hypotheses are:
Companies never learn from past mistakes (Score:2, Interesting)
If these companies really believe that their competitors can't do the same thing a 12 year old kid did to get the info, then they deserve whatever they get. I wish they could just see how stupid they are being and save the rest of us some time!
Someone hitting Trident on the stock boards (Score:2, Interesting)
I thought to check the Yahoo stock message boards and hit them in the wallet (the only place a big company really listens), and it looks like someone beat me to the punch. You may want to mention the economic side of things if you write to Investor Relations as well as the PR people. The addresses are there in the referenced post:
Yahoo TRID stock message board [yahoo.com]
Re:Write them? Wow. What a hoot! (Score:2, Interesting)
You know, on the one hand you are right. Linux doesn't yet have much of a maket share. That's right.
But on the other hand - neither does Mac, and much less the new OS X. What's its market share? 2%? Yep, something in that direction.
No flame - but I always wondered: Why in the world do the companies support such a tiny market as Mac so "good"? I mean, Linux has a stronger market share (~5 %?), but it's not as good supported by the major players.
Why are Macs supported so strongly?
Sample Letter (Score:2, Interesting)
My letter (Score:1, Interesting)
your policy of providing chipset documentation to open source
projects.
I find this very sad!
I myself have a Toshiba Tecra 8200 with a Trident Cyberblade XP.
Unfortuanatly im not able to run it on linux, like my server and
workstation does, because I need HW acc. in X and TV-OUT support. Im
very dissapointed about your decision. Please support open source. Major
companies like matrox and nvidia have great linux support. If you don't
want to be left out, support Open Source!
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Boo Hoo (Score:2, Interesting)
Come to think of it.. I can't remember the last time I saw a 'low end' system with a Trident video card in it.. =]
My letter to trident (Score:1, Interesting)
My name is Travis Whitton, and I am an avid user of open source technology including the Linux operating system and XFree86 server architecture. I have recently learned that you have made a decision to desist in releasing chipset documentation to open source developers under an NDA that allows them to publicly distribute their source code. I find this change in policy upsetting due to the fact that it means that hardware containing your future chipsets will be incompatible with my operating of choice. As a consumer, I have to make decisions about what purchases make the most sense to me, so why would I buy a product that I can't utilize to the same degree as I can other alternatives? I currently own a laptop that does contain a Trident chipset, and I've found it to work very nicely under Linux with XFree86; however, if you decide to continue down the path which you have recently decided to embark upon(proprietary hardware with closed specifications), then there will be little chance of me investing in a machine containing your chipset in the future because I won't be able to use it. In lieu of this fact, I implore you to reconsider your decision and please continue to release your hardware specifications to the open source community. We are an important niche that's growing all the time, and we invite you to grow with us.
Sincerely,
Travis Whitton
Trident's Marketroids Speak: (Score:2, Interesting)
On behalf of Trident Microsystems, I would like to state on the record that Trident has not changed our policy of providing chipset documentation to open source projects. Trident however continues to require an NDA to be signed in order to gain access to such confidential technical information.
He posted it at 10PM.