On Thu, 23 Oct 2008 20:21:23 -0700, Darren New wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> Real money comes from hardware sales, though; supporting (or allowing
>> others to write support for) more platforms = more product sales.
> 
> Yes. That's why (for example) Sun gives away Java.

Yes, and I'm happier now that the JDK is mostly ported to openJDK - that 
means 64-bit Java plugin for FF on Linux now.

> However, that doesn't hold true when the device drivers include much of
> the innovation in the hardware. As soon as you explain exactly how it
> works, someone else can rip off your design.  See, for example, "PC
> Clone".

True, but at the same time, that information being reverse-engineered by 
Compaq really opened up the PC market; it also commoditized (or helped 
commoditize) PC hardware and reduced the costs so most people could 
afford one.  Or two.  Or ten. ;-)

Which in turn has moved PC sales from a low-volume high-margin sales 
model to a low-margin high-volume sales model.  Seems to have worked out 
fairly well for most PC manufacturers.

Eventually, clean room reverse-engineering would expose those internals 
anyways, and arguably the type of process Compaq followed isn't something 
IBM could have sued over - the guys developing the Compaq BIOS were 
working entirely from specs drawn up by the guys who were looking at how 
the BIOS worked.

Jim

Post a reply to this message