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Technology Stocks : Red Hat Software Inc. (Nasdq-RHAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eric Sandeen who wrote (727)	8/21/1999 12:52:00 PM
From: Doug B.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1794

There are a lot of proprietary issues regarding encryption and locking and things, that makes it pretty hard if the hardware vendors aren't forthcoming with the necessary information. This is exactly why Red Hat's agreements with, for instance, Dell, give them an advantage and a level of credibility. Hardware vendors are not going to cough up interface information without either being paid or some expectation that they will sell a lot of devices as a result. If Dell makes the release of specs to Red Hat a part (admittedly a small part) of their agreement to use a particular manufacturer's hardware, this ensures that the necessary stuff will end up in the public source for Linux sooner rather than later as the result of hacking and reverse engineering. Red Hat's developers work on the drivers at Dell's behest, and Red Hat gets more installation fees from Dell when they sell hardware with Red Hat installed. More about this: Message 10980874