On Thu, 2004-04-29 at 19:19, Thomas Bushnell, BSG wrote: > Xavier Roche <roche@httrack.com> writes: > > > The firmware is a detached part of the connected hardware, nothing more. > > The loading process just reconnects this part so that the hardware can > > work. > > I am confused. When I purchase the hardware, why do I not get this, > since it is after all "part of the connected hardware"? It looks for > all the world like it's a piece of software that the hardware vendor > has written, and asked the OS distributor to publish for them. The firmware is usually on a Windows installation CD, and may be in a obscured file, only readable by some closed source windows program. Dd you ever examine a driver CD and try to find out the meaning of the files? Moreover, the versions on the CDs may differ, usually it is outdated as soon as the it hits the shelves. You can of course download it from a website, but again, it may be obscured. The Linux driver may depend on a particular firmware version, and supporting different firmware versions is a maintainance nightmare. Greetings, Oliver
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