Re: Win modems

[Chris Waters <xtifr@debian.org>]

On Fri, May 11, 2001 at 01:13:43AM -0700, bast3d wrote:

> I wanted to inquire on if Debian is going to include Win Modem support?

The question should really be: does anyone in the Debian project feel
like supporting WinModems?  My *personal* take on the matter is that
WinModems impose too much of a performance penalty on CPUs, and I
would never use one, which would make it difficult for me to support.

Bottom line: a) is it free enough (or redistributable enough for our
non-free archives), and b) is anyone willing to do the work required.

> With hundreds of thousands of Win Modems out there, I think that
> 'having that base covered' would be advantageous to sales

"Sales"?  What are these "sales" you speak of?  :-)

Personally, I would be worried about *overall* support issues with
people foolish enough to use WinModems.  Someone who thinks a WinModem
is a modem may well be incapable of reading the docs in general, and I
don't want a massive increase in bug reports from people who don't (or
can't) RTFM.

If I got paid for my support work for Debian, I might sing a different
tune, but as it stands....

> Hell, Debian could carve a niche with doing just that.

I think hard-to-install, but easy to use and maintain, gives us an
ideal niche for an all-volunteer-built system.  Others may disagree,
though.  So, the question really becomes: are the people who disagree
with me willing and capable of the work required?

Bottom line: most WinModem drivers don't meet the DFSG, and so, will
never be in main, and thus, will never be on our boot system, which
means that you'll need some other net access mechanism just to
download the drivers in the first place.
-- 
Chris Waters           |  Pneumonoultra-        osis is too long
xtifr@debian.org       |  microscopicsilico-    to fit into a single
or xtifr@speakeasy.net |  volcaniconi-          standalone haiku