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Re: Legal issues with having Linux use Windows device drivers



On Mon, Sep 14, 1998 at 10:31:49PM -0700, Geoffrey L. Brimhall wrote:
> Aside from the technical issues of having Linux use windows device drivers
> (such as the video card drivers), are there any legal reasons why a person
> could not use the device drivers written for the MS Windows operating system ?

Yes and no. You can NOT distribute the drivers to other people 
However...if you have a licence for windows you can use it all you want.
This is quite similar to the many people using xfstt to have truetype
fonts in X...I know I got most of My truetypes from Windows...

> The other issue is whether or not the device api set which the drivers use to
> communicate with the windows operating system are proprietary or not. They are
> certainly an open, published api set (look at the DDK part of the
> Microsoft MSDN, where most of these entry points are described). The question
> is whether Microsoft owns all rights to usage of these entry points ? If they
> don't, then it seems like some kernel drivers could be written which supply
> these api points and map them to pertinant UNIX io, thus allowing usage of the
> drivers.

Excellent quote from a source I forget:
"Microsoft technical Documentation has done more to retard the skills of 
programmers than anything since COBOL"

Have you ever tried to write a program for windows? Their documtnation
is absolutely horrendous. Not to mention they are FAMOUS for leaving allot
of calls undocumented. (Presumably so only they can use them because noone
knows about them. This of course allows them to have better programs than
everyone else and BEFORE anyone else)

As for anything else...You are free to implimenbt the API et al. They can not
stop you from doing that (legally) but they don't have to help (from what
I understand the undocumented calls have been a thorn in the side of many
people working on WINE and  similar projects)

Also...many device drivers are NOT written by Microsoft. From what it 
looks like to me (and I have heard) it goes more like this:
Company produces something.
Company writes a driver
Company pays microsoft to look at the driver and certify it is windows 
compatible (and of course with MOST M$ also includes their driver
into the Windows distribution)

that sjust what I have heard tho
-Steve
-- 
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