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David Revoy

😩 Summary of my emails with Xencelabs, PicassoTab, Huion, XpPen, Artisul and UGEE: it's hopeless. 😅

A meme parody of "Phoebe Teaching Joey", it originates from the Friends television series in which character Phoebe Buffay attempts to teach character Joey Tribbiani French by making him repeat words after her. Joey fails at the end. In this parody; Phoebe says: Make a driver... Joey: Make a driver... Phoebe: for GNU/Linux Joey: for GNU/Linux Phoebe: Free/Libre and Open-Source. Joey: Free/Libre and Open-Source. Phoebe then is happy to compile all: "Make a driver for GNU/Linux, Free/Libre and Open Source", but Joey try to repeat (wrongly) Make a driver for GNU/Linux, proprietary and closed".
22 Jun 2022 at 12:06 | Open on framapiaf.org
11 comments
mmu_man

@davidrevoy non you don't want to ask for a driver.

You want to ask for the specifications so you can find someone to write a proper driver.
Specifications are part of the user manual.

cf. haiku-os.org/blog/mmu_man/2021

22 Jun 2022 at 12:08 | Open on m.g3l.org
David Revoy

@mmu_man xD I'll try. But I'm not sure I can review their tablet on my channel or my blog with a set of specifications in hands. 😆

22 Jun 2022 at 12:11 | Open on framapiaf.org
Dr. Quadragon ❌

@davidrevoy drivers have literally zero reason to be proprietary.

They are only meant to be used with certain devices THAT YOU'VE BOUGHT!!! Making source code of a driver visible won't help you make a new device and infringe on patents or what not.

And even if one driver also works for another device of the same category, SO FUCKING WHAT THEN? It's not like anybody lost anything as the result.

So what is the point of proprietary drivers? There's none!

22 Jun 2022 at 12:20 | Open on mastodon.ml
David Revoy

@drq Yeah... Telemetry. Wacom was already caught hands full in the honey pot: robertheaton.com/2020/02/05/wa .It made top news of many tech website tomshardware.com/news/wacom-ta and had to publish apologies and fix it (by adding option for consent, of course).
I guess it is the same here. Brands wants to know who use their driver, for what, how long... I would probably advice someone installing their driver to put the executable behind a strong firewall rule.

@drq Yeah... Telemetry. Wacom was already caught hands full in the honey pot: robertheaton.com/2020/02/05/wa .It made top news of many tech website tomshardware.com/news/wacom-ta and had to publish apologies and fix it (by adding option for consent, of course).
I guess it is the same here. Brands wants to know who use their driver, for what, how long... I would probably advice someone...

22 Jun 2022 at 12:27 | Open on framapiaf.org
Dr. Quadragon ❌

@davidrevoy I'm naïve, I know, but shouldn't this be just malware and therefore illegal then?

22 Jun 2022 at 14:50 | Open on mastodon.ml
Dr. Quadragon ❌

@davidrevoy
(And btw, telemetry in and of itself is not a mortal sin. Whereas enabling it by default without the slightest notice, in my book, should be)

22 Jun 2022 at 14:52 | Open on mastodon.ml
David Revoy

@drq Yes, it was malware/illegal (at least in today's world Europe with RGPD, and bypassing user consent). But on Twitter, someone pointed me that now Wacom ask at install, but the sentence let think the hardware will function worst without accepting it; and the button to reject is difficult to find (a dark pattern). This , and a ToS and a "I accept" when user just install and want to benefit of their hardware makes it possible legally now.

22 Jun 2022 at 15:02 | Open on framapiaf.org
meejah

@drq @davidrevoy Proprietarians going to think propietarily by default :(
(_Constantly_ have to have this conversation at an ostensibly "open first" company ...)

23 Jun 2022 at 3:25 | Open on mastodon.social
LovesTha🥧

@drq @davidrevoy Sometimes the driver is doing interesting things that give a competitive advantage.

I don't like it but it happens.

23 Jun 2022 at 6:50 | Open on floss.social
Душный гик

@drq @davidrevoy
> Making source code of a driver visible won't help you make a new device and infringe on patents or what not.

Wrong. Drivers work closely with their hardware and may contain protocol details, hardware descriptions or even parts of firmware which may give a hint to reverse engineers. The latter is especially sensitive in the modern age of SDH, when the firmware may *be* the hardware as such.

1 Sep 2022 at 10:18 | Open on mstdn.social
BloodyWing

@davidrevoy

Xencelabs dongle probably is just bluetooth and they don't want people to know that. Similar like the logitech unifying receiver.

24 Jun 2022 at 8:26 | Open on mastodon.art
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