Dell, HP and Lenovo have promised to push chipset vendors to make open source drivers for Linux.

Representatives from Dell, HP and Lenovo made the commitment at a Linux Foundation conference last week, promising to include wording in their hardware procurement processes to "strongly encourage" the delivery of open source drivers for integration into the Linux kernel.

"This year we saw breakthroughs in driver support for the desktop, IPV6 compliance and virtualisation. We feel it's an important venue for solving cross-industry and cross-community issues," Linux Foundation executive director, Jim Zemlin, said in a statement.

Maker of the Linux-based Eee PC, ASUS, has also said it will encourage its hardware suppliers to provide open source drivers for Linux.

"This makes it a lot easier to buy a system that flawlessly runs with Linux. If there are platforms with open drivers it means it should open up more systems that can run with Linux in the future," said Linux Australia president, Stewart Smith.

Currently, if there is a problem with a proprietary driver, only the company that made the driver can fix it. "If its open source, anyone with the knowledge can fix it — for example, the people who make your Linux distribution, such as Novell or Red Hat," Smith said.

Changes to the Linux kernel will also be easier if Dell, HP and Lenovo live up to their promise. According to Smith, drivers often fail to work after a change to the kernel.

Related links

Leave a comment

You must read and type the 6 chars within 0..9 and A..F

* indicates mandatory fields.

Log in


Sign up | Forgot your password?

Blogs

RSS feed

  • Staff Share a keyboard and mouse with Synergy

    Even in the era of virtualization, many IT pros (including myself) have a small army of computers sitting on, under, and around their desks. Read more »

    -- posted by Staff

  • Staff Android devs less than gruntled

    Yet more discouraging news on the Android front. Having hacked off its developer community by releasing updated SDKs to just a small group of chosen devs, Google has now given the brush-off to a petition that called for more to be given to the wider community. Read more »

    -- posted by Staff

  • Staff VMware shows how not to do it

    As a developer there will be a time when you ship a bug -- be it a stub that you left in, or a flaming, crashtastic segfault. The next time this happens and your bosses come baying for blood, point them in the direction of VMware, who this week gave the developer world a great example of how to ship a showstopper bug. Read more »

    -- posted by Staff

What's on?

  • Club Builder: Captain Obvious vs the Crackpots

    In the case of the bleeding obvious, IBM says open source needs good designers; a claim is made that China can activate your phone to snoop on you; and we take a look at the Defcon conference.