That would be amasing, and should happen. If you sell hardware you should include all documentation, code and support needed to use it.
Could EU force hardware manufacturers to make working drivers for Linux?
141–150 of 369 posts
Re: Could EU force hardware manufacturers to make working drivers for Linux?
#142This is why society is screwed. All these people don't understand the dangers of socialism. History is bound to repeat itself. The cost of the EU forcing everyone to adopt a standard is that next time a new manufacturer need to enter the market, it will have to cater to the need of the 1% (of which I am part, I'd love to have drivers for linux for everything). Who is going to benefit from this regulation? The existin…
We can make it so that it only applies to the really big or top 5 (say) manufacturers.
Re: Could EU force hardware manufacturers to make working drivers for Linux?
#143They don't necessarily have to: there's another, more comprehensive hammer they (or the US for that matter) could use: disallow vertical integration. Force hardware vendors to only sell hardware. If any software that can be changed remotely or by the user is off limits. Even firmware. Conversely, software vendors can only sell (or freely distribute) software. For vendors from abroad, don't go extra-territorial, just…
> Force hardware vendors to only sell hardware. If any software that can be changed remotely or by the user is off limits. Even firmware. Conversely, software vendors can only sell (or freely distribute) software.
So, I would go buy a smartphone at a shop, and then buy an OS to run on it at another shop? Or would it be allowed for a third party to integrate the two and sell me a working phone?
Also, would “any software that can be changed remotely or by the user is off limits” mean Intel/Samsung/… couldn’t sell CPUs with microcode installed, or even write microcode? It may be hard to legally define where the border between “software that’s part of the hardware” and “software.” lies.
> You'll get the necessary specs required to make it work on all OSes
I don’t see how that follows. Software company C could pay hardware company H to build hardware according to specs they give, with the specs under NDA, possibly even forbidding H to sell that hardware design to others than C.
I think banning trade secrets (https://www.wipo.int/tradesecrets/en/tradesecrets_faqs.html) on the interface between software and hardware, rather than splitting companies into hardware and software parts is the way to achieve your goals.
Re: Could EU force hardware manufacturers to make working drivers for Linux?
#144They don't necessarily have to: there's another, more comprehensive hammer they (or the US for that matter) could use: disallow vertical integration. Force hardware vendors to only sell hardware. If any software that can be changed remotely or by the user is off limits. Even firmware. Conversely, software vendors can only sell (or freely distribute) software. For vendors from abroad, don't go extra-territorial, just…
Yes, and I'd also like hardware and software companies to not have access to my data. E.g. Google should be split into hardware, software, and data companies.
Re: Could EU force hardware manufacturers to make working drivers for Linux?
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, it did. Your point?
You can seamlessly share standard Bluetooth devices between 5 devices just by pairing it to one like I do with my iPhone, iPad, Watch, MacBook and AppleTV and it automatically switches?
"seamlessly". I've had trouble between just an Apple-branded mobile phone and their branded all-in-one computer when it comes to the Apple-branded wireless headphones. The ping-pong between active sound channel/device had me disable the "seamless" handover, as it were a subpar experience for me. Better to manually decide which device that actively "owns" the channel.
Re: Could EU force hardware manufacturers to make working drivers for Linux?
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
I generally think any company with a >10 billion (2023 US) dollar valuation should be forced to do things that may not directly benefit them but benefit society. Having to publish open specifications for all their proprietary integrations is a pretty easy, relatively low-cost example. How to make this work in practice is a really interesting question. Community and employee representatives on the board would be a goo…
Oh god, talking about design by committee. Why not just cut out the middle man and let the government take it over and come up with “5 year plans”
If a company doesn't want at least some element of that, the solution is very simple: drop below a USD $10B valuation by spinning off parts of the company. Note that I said TEN BILLION DOLLARS. A "decacorn". That is an unfathomable amount of money. If you've created a company worth that much you've won at capitalism.
If governments had a good track record I'd advocate for that. No need for strawmen like five year plans, I think competition is a wonderful thing.
My underlying, strong belief is that corporations are legal fictions created primarily to benefit society, Milton Friedman's philosophy notwithstanding.
Re: Could EU force hardware manufacturers to make working drivers for Linux?
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
If only adults had agency to make their own decisions about lightbulbs without depending on the government…
If only adults had the agency to make their own decision about how to deal with corporate malfeasance. Like back in the good old days when lynching was an option. /s
You realize that said lynching was very often institutionalized and encouraged by local authorities? Do you think corporations were the ones doing the lynching?
Even in the context of the extreme hyperbole of this entire comment chain, your analogy is pretty extreme and does not make sense. Jim Crow laws weren't stopped by regulation, they were stopped by dismantling government enforced rules.
And yes, it might sound crazy but individuals can actually decide what light bulb to buy or what computer to buy. And thinking so isn't even remotely libertarian or hyper capitalist. We aren't talking about labor rights or healthcare or other very asymmetric power imbalances. People just like to buy computers and devices that nerds and euh, let's say, activists dislike or ideologically disagree with. It doesn't make them sheep, or stupid, or ignorant.
Re: Could EU force hardware manufacturers to make working drivers for Linux?
#148They don't necessarily have to: there's another, more comprehensive hammer they (or the US for that matter) could use: disallow vertical integration. Force hardware vendors to only sell hardware. If any software that can be changed remotely or by the user is off limits. Even firmware. Conversely, software vendors can only sell (or freely distribute) software. For vendors from abroad, don't go extra-territorial, just…
What if we allow hardware manufacturers to create software to run their hardware but open the schematics and make the hardware hackable such that others can run software they want? That seems like a decent compromise because there’s very little margin in hardware alone and if you force hardware makers to go that route pretty soon there won’t be any because they’ll all have gone out of business.
Re: Could EU force hardware manufacturers to make working drivers for Linux?
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
Literally never needed to copy text from smartphone to pc (or viceversa). At best anyone needs to sync between photos, docs or stuff like that. For that you just need a sync on the cloud like Dropbox, Drive, Box, and so on (also never heard of bluetooth for small files?) moreover, apple's software is generally very buggy.
Never typed a 2FA code from the phone to the computer? Just copying them on the iPhone and pasting them on the mac is super convenient.
I never felt like syncing my devices besides steam cloud saves. Too much convenience makes me uncomfortable. Especially if it means mixing corporate and personal stuff.
Re: Could EU force hardware manufacturers to make working drivers for Linux?
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is KDE Connect? Which incidentally runs equally well on other desktops and even windows. https://userbase.kde.org/KDEConnect Also gsconnect can provide integration with gnome. https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1319/gsconnect/ KDE Connect is a project that enables all your devices to communicate with each other. Here are a few things KDE Connect can do: Receive your phone notifications on your desktop comput…
KDE Connect requires both devices to be connected to the same network, which means you have to connect your devices to the same VPN if you're on a wifi network with client isolation (most public wifi). If you're away from wifi, you'll have to configure one of the devices to be an access point and join everything else to that device. Apple's clipboard/handoff/continuity automatically works as long as the devices are w…
This is a good point and a good reason to propose an improvement to KDE Connect but users point was that integration would be awful if not done by the same party and it seems to my eyes to be pretty good despite one being created by a party with literally a billionth of the resources of the other.