[comicjk]

We certainly don't want all OSs confined to closed hardware like OS X.

Ubuntu (and open source in general) works because of inverse-free-riders, "free helpers" we might call them. That seems to be a sustainable model, but it likely won't work for annoying grunt programming - note the poor driver support in many Linux distros. For some tasks, someone needs to be paid.

[treeform]

A big couse in pour drivers support is that companies dont publish specs to their devices. If there was only one dominant free OS like linux, companies that make hardwire would want their devices to work with it and so will write drivers or at least publish full spec.

[pilom]

I disagree that it is really sustainable on an industry wide scale. Who pays the salaries of the free helpers so that they have the free time to contribute?

[aklofas]

Windows doesn't write driver software either. It's up to the hardware companies to make their hardware compatible if they want to sell it. Windows just happens to have the largest market share. If Linux had even one tenth the share of windows, drivers wouldn't be an issue.