Drivers: main concern in adopting OSS solutions

[Sonali Warunjikar]

I am a dentist. I have been a long time Linux (Fedora since RH 7 days)
user at my home and always wish I could use Linux in the clinic. I find
Linux to be incredibly stable, fast, reliable and secure.

At clinic, I am locked in to proprietary software simply because of lack
of drivers for devices such as RVG (Kodak). Most representatives of the
company I try to talk with in this regard are not even aware that there
exists an operating system other than Windows. For them this is a one off
and unreasonable demand to have drivers for Linux. (Perhaps they are right
because not too many people ask for it. But that's a deadlock. People do
not ask for it, because this option does not reach too many people.)

Lack of drivers is really a bottleneck in adopting a system the way I'd
like it to be.  I believe, OSS adoption is meaningful only if I adopt the
Linux OS, too for all its benefits. For me, it's not just about running
OSS workflow applications on Windows.

Any exchange of ideas on what to expect from OSS community in this regard,
ways to awaken device manufacturers, any other technical hints as a way
out are welcome.

Regards,
Sonali.

[susmit shannigrahi]

Hi Sonali,

Nice that you mail back. :)
> Lack of drivers is really a bottleneck in adopting a system the way I'd
> like it to be.  I believe, OSS adoption is meaningful only if I adopt the
> Linux OS, too for all its benefits. For me, it's not just about running
> OSS workflow applications on Windows.

Someone pointed me to these links:
"The Linux Driver Project is focused on creating and maintaining
OpenSource Linux kernel drivers for all types of devices."
http://www.linuxdriverproject.org/foswiki/bin/view
and
http://kerneldrivers.org/KernelDrivers.org

I think we can and should talk to them regarding this.
Shouldn't we?

[Sonali Warunjikar]

On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 09:17:14PM +0530, susmit shannigrahi wrote:
> Someone pointed me to these links:
> "The Linux Driver Project is focused on creating and maintaining
> OpenSource Linux kernel drivers for all types of devices."
> http://www.linuxdriverproject.org/foswiki/bin/view
> and
> http://kerneldrivers.org/KernelDrivers.org

I'm sure there are many groups like this and hence we see Linux running on
so many notebooks for example, with wide variety of hardware.

But the OSS community is driven by the quantum of need. Unfortunately
there are too few medical professionals that are interested in using
Linux and who also need to interface their devices. Most are content using
whatever piece of software the manufacturer provides to them.

Secondly, as one of the above sites says, the developers' community needs
specifications for the hardware. They may manage to reverse engineer it
occasionally, but who will do that for specific devices used in medicine?

I just have questions like these... Not sure whether there will ever be
practicable answers to them...

Sonali.