[arch-general] A universal Operating System API - why don't we have it?

[Xavier]

On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 5:31 PM, Chris Brannon <cmbrannon79 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Pierre Chapuis <catwell at archlinux.us> writes:
>
>> There are things like that (think NDIS - it's Microsoft, but it's a
>> step in the right direction), just not enough , but I think it's a
>> question of time.
>
> And then there's the UDI (universal driver interface) (UDI), which Stallman
> doesn't like.  I can certainly see arguments for both sides of that
> issue.
>
> As an aside, I interviewed for a job with MS last year.  At some point,
> the device driver issue was discussed.  One of my interviewers made the
> comment that a universal driver interface would be a bad thing, because
> it "reduces competition".  I don't think that they like commoditized
> things at all.
>

Was that a private joke or something ? :)
The only thing MS has ever done or tried to do is killing competition.
And who writes drivers ? Isn't it / shouldn't it be the hardware
makers who designed the hardware in the first place ?
And most of them probably invest 99% of the resources for Windows, and
1% for all the other os.

Well it probably depends a lot on the hardware/drivers we talk about,
so it is probably difficult to stay general. And to be honest, I
probably don't have a good picture of it. But it just sounds like a
funny argument to me.