[hinkley]

> you'll never be the star of the show.

This is far too kind. If you work eg for a hardware manufacturer, not only won’t you be the star, but good luck getting any respect. You are a cost. One they wish they didn’t have to pay. Delivering on time and under budget doesn’t put you on their radar, it takes you off.

[badpun]

Depends on the hardware manufacturer. From what I know, developers at Intel are treated pretty well. It all depends on how integral the software component is to the overall product's market success. In the case of Intel, a GPU with poor and buggy drivers is not gonna sell, so software is pretty important.

[hinkley]

Isn't Intel struggling now because their definition of 'pretty well' wasn't good enough and they lost key people to competitors?