I meant this to go to the list instead of just Mark but my T-Bird reply-to-list function apparently didn't cooperate. Stan Hoeppner put forth on 3/22/2010 9:40 PM: > Mark Lord put forth on 3/22/2010 8:34 PM: >> On 18/03/10 10:26 PM, Tejun Heo wrote: >> ,I think we really need some clarification from WDC at this >>> point. I'm sure WDC wouldn't want Linux distros to go ahead and >>> disable powersaving feature unconditionally, so please let us know. >> .. >> >> WD is already *VERY CLEAR* on their own web site: they don't support, >> and are not in the slightest bit interested in, Linux. >> >> Mac OS, yes. Windows, yes. >> Linux, NO. >> >> So.. do your part, and don't buy them. >> And don't recommend them for any of your customers, >> enterprise or otherwise. >> >> Otherwise they have no incentive to come to their senses. > > Their support for OSX is spotty in places as well, so it's not just Linux > getting the proverbial shaft. > > Unfortunately I think your logic here is backwards. WD's current end user > support policy is based on the fact that they receive so few Linux support > requests. Thus they deem it not worth their time to expend resources ($$) > supporting Linux. To get them to support Linux they need to see much more > Linux support demand. Increased demand is the only thing that will reverse > their current Linux end user support policy. > > That being said, is their direct support to Linux _developers_ just as poor > as with end users? If so, that's cause for alarm. > > However, again, giving them the bird and not buying their products won't > phase them at all due to the overall shipment numbers. They ship a few > hundred million drives a year world wide, and I'd make a somewhat educated > guess that far less than 1% are used in Linux systems. > > Mechanical storage is a very cut throat business. WD has no penetration in > the enterprise market, and thus no enterprise profits to offset losses in > its consumer segment. Seagate, Hitachi, and Fujitsu all do. They can > afford to support Linux in the desktop space because they have to support it > in their enterprise space. WD has to use their support $$ where it best > affects the bottom line. They're simply making a business decision. I'm > sure it's not a philosophical issue. I'm sure they have many Linux servers > and probably many Linux workstations within their own company. > > I'm not necessarily defending WD here, just stating the likely reality of > the situation. The only way to change this situation is for more Linux > users to buy more WD drives. That may seem counter intuitive to you, but > that's reality. > -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-ide" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
