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142 Comments
- ThomS, on 10/12/2007, -5/+241What a hero!
- chicken101, on 10/12/2007, -6/+176He defines the power of open source.
- egbert, on 10/12/2007, -8/+136The programmer did not write 352 seperate drivers for web cams, he wrote drivers for 8 different camera bridge chips and different versions of those chips.
- Terc, on 10/12/2007, -3/+92Alone AND by himself?! Wow!
- wiihuck, on 10/12/2007, -4/+80dyslexic wtf?
- loconet, on 10/12/2007, -3/+62As explained on /., He didn't write 352 separate drivers. He wrote drivers for 8 different camera bridge chips and different versions of those chips.
Still, superb contribution/accomplishment! - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+57Whos lysdexic??
- ghostlywind, on 10/12/2007, -1/+49He's a hero and he has a tobacco pipe to, which makes him all the more cooler.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+51532. Dyslexic ftw.
- Masterbaiter, on 10/12/2007, -4/+45Definite win. But then again, so are all others who writes drivers for *nix.
- TheTaoOfBill, on 10/12/2007, -0/+41It would be one thing if he did it alone with a team of 60 or if he did it with a partner by himself. But this guy did it alone AND by himself. That takes balls my friend. BALLS!
- Durrok, on 10/12/2007, -2/+35Biggest problem I have with Linux users in general is the constant complaint of things that do not work. Yes, we need to complain to make others aware of it. The developers and people who help write the OS are not the ones you should be slamming when something doesn't work however. The Ubuntu Networking forums are full of stuff like "Fix this or I'm going back to Windows". WTF? That is like someone sitting on a corner handing out free ice cream and you complain that he doesn't give you sprinkles. Not everything is going to work right away. That is why there are many programmers like this guy typing away with /his/ free time to improve support and performance for everyone.
So next time before you make a comment like "Now if only they could do the same for wifi", "The driver works but it's crappier then windows", or "I'm going to switch back to windows if you don't fix this" take 10 seconds and think about it:
It cost you nothing but your time
The people who have developed drivers/software for it put in 100-1,000x the time making the drivers then you did trying to get them to work
If you really want to see something added in, code it for yourself. If you can't, donate some money to the project so the paid developers can work on getting it added in and keep on googling. Someone somewhere has the same problem that you have and has a way around it.
/steps off soapbox - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+36Of course not. Its open source!!
- mrfreeziexp, on 10/12/2007, -3/+34http://www.digg.com/linux_unix/Lone_Programmer_Writes_253_Webcam_Drivers_for_Linux
Which one is it? 352 or 253? - mojoe1185, on 10/12/2007, -3/+31I didn't know you could be alone, and by yourself, amazing.
/sarcasm - demonsofgoetia, on 10/12/2007, -2/+30The related IRC channel on Freenode where the above mentioned programmer has been seen from time to time:
#spca50x
irc://irc.freenode.net/spca50x
His site:
http://mxhaard.free.fr - Gerbil_Juice, on 10/12/2007, -3/+28"alone by himself"
Is there a way to do it alone with help? - merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+24alone by himself without anyone else, unaccompanied and unassisted!
Quick, someone call the department of the redundancy department. The summary's repetitively redundant again, once more. - sishgupta, on 10/12/2007, -3/+25ThomS: Exactly what I said.
JohnWyles: Quickcam support for my version of the logitech quickcam should already be built into recent kernels. I am using 2.6.20 with feisty and my quickcam "just works". - stinkypyper, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22"I am a Physician and work in Doppler and Ultrasound imaging for years."
This guy is a Physician who works in medical imaging and writes linux drivers in his spare time. This guy is a genius. - merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21He did this because he bought his daughters webcams that didn't work under linux.
So he's at least had a wife. - generalloy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+22egbert: "The programmer did not write 352 seperate drivers for web cams, he wrote drivers for 8 different camera bridge chips and different versions of those chips."
Apparently, the UVC spec isn't well-implemented by manufacturers, so he very well had to make changes to all these different webcams' implementations.
I know my Creative NX webcam works thanks to him :) first spca5xx, and now gspca. - GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -4/+23It is better to write 8 drivers to support 352 cameras than it is to write 352 drivers. It shows he at least thought about the problem and used ingenuity rather than brute force to solve the problem.
- Aliarse, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18You forgot to add the, ", unlike you." part to the end of your comment.
- hockey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17Yeah. He bought 2 webcams so I'm assuming that's 2 daughters. That means he's had sex at least twice which is 2 more times than 99.9% of the population on digg.
- philz, on 10/12/2007, -5/+21Dyslexics of the world untie!
- betacmag4u, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15where can I paypal him few bucks? everyone do him a solid and follow suit.
- Aliarse, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15There's more people running Linux then people running Vista.
- robharrigan, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15Now if only someone would do the same for wifi...
- venom8599, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14That's what I assumed when I read the title, and the article makes it clear too. Still a great accomplishment, but it's not really as "insane" as if he wrote 352 drivers.
- BigManOnCampus, on 10/12/2007, -5/+18@dkoon
I took great pleasure at giving you your -5th digg. Mostly because your display of ignorance is amazing.
"If everything on Linux is "JUST WORKS" then no one person should have to write 352 drivers other then the manufacturers, it should works right away when you bought the webcam."
Really? So not having to even put a driver disk in for your webcam to work means that linux is somehow less capable than Windows?
"How about the time before this guy wrote the drivers? or before Fiesty released? When did your quickcam release? When did Fiesty release? Your "JUST WORKS" is at least months after the quickcam released, and there's absolutely nothing to be proud of for an OS."
So what? It "just works" now, doesn't it? That's quite an accomplishment for an operating system that has no large corporation donating time to make it "just work". In fact, I daresay it's quite an accomplishment for any piece of software where volunteers from around the globe donate their time an energy.
Take your flameage to some other board that doesn't run on a LAMP server that "just works".
(That would be Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Perl, for those who don't know) - Jimmyinnz, on 10/12/2007, -7/+19Absolutely brilliant - all for the cause and all that.
Reminds me of when Windows first started, Bill and the boys (and girls of course) all working 24 hours a day writing drivers for obscure products and interfaces. Or Sir Clive and his team working on interfaces for the ZX81 and spectrum. I even remember the days of me writing code and building an interface on a breadboard for a fullsize keyboard and expanded memory for the ZX81.
Nowadays all the techy, sophisticated, gung ho linux users rely on one French dude to script an interface between a webcam and an operating system. THE WHOLE WORLD waits for ONE dude to do this. Then a user comments "It is truly excellent that people are willing to volunteer their time!"
Why do the linux users just not purchase a webcam with an interface already written and reward the dudes who did it. Oh I forgot Linux users prefer 'open source' over having to buy the frickin thing.
(And yes I've been using Unix since 1984)
Digg it down - capitapf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12You would know that he wouldnt be with others if you bothered to read the other 20 comments that said the exact same thing. Sorry if im being an *****, but am i the only person on digg who actually reads other comments before i post?
- shanesemler, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Cool guy! :) He needs some sponsership. Heck, even a domain name. Does he take Paypal donations?
- rsklnkv, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12I'm slightly confused by your comment.
You've used unix. Okay. What does that have to do with the topic at hand besides the fact that unix/linux/osx may share some similar code/commands/fans/development? Does the fact that you have used unix since 1984 somehow mean that the idea of 'open source' is silly and limited to people who would rather just 'get stuff free'? I missed the sarcasm in that (I guess) and if you were subtly making fun of the fact that there is a VERY distinct difference between 'open source' and 'free' software, I apologize for the digg-down. Somehow, however, I get the feeling that you were actually being elitist yourself, in some strange way, by deriding the linux community in general. You did say "Oh I forgot Linux users prefer..." , right? That's a pretty subjective statement, pal. I don't care how long you've been working with Bill or the rest of the Classic Computer Geeks Who Started It All, I think you are an elitist snob who feels he deserves more for whatever work you did 'back in the day' and it pisses you off that people actually enjoy helping to create a stronger linux (daaaare I say unix!?!) community. Free software? OMG! Ruuuuuuuuuuun!!!!!
I seriously do not understand your point and I really don't understand how how in the #uck you got dugg up. - merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10That's actually not uncommon for really cheap crappy hardware. See also: winmodems. To save on hardware costs, they move functionality off into the driver. Which makes the drivers more complex, and incompatible with each other.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11I don't know, MadWiFi drivers work pretty well for me.
- Aliarse, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11No, but I'll take them and send him a cheque with the money i receive.
Email me @ iwontripyouoff@honest.com for paypal info. - schestowitz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Bless him!
- Atomic1fire, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11slashdotcomma?
- ErikHK, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10BigManOnCampus: PHP, Perl or Python to be exact, more often PHP tbh.
- venom8599, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8@GMorgan
Of course it is. Nobody said it wasn't the best way to do things. It's just that it sounds more impressive if one person coded 352 drivers on his own, rather than just drivers for 8 chipsets and some other variations of the same chipsets. - noseeme, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Geeky vanity? ;)
- chriswo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Maybe this is a short-term win for Linux...but I think it's just wrong.
These hardware manufacturers get to leverage this guy's work and he doesn't make a dime off of it. While some might call him a hero, I'm looking at this story as corporations riding on the back of society without paying their fair share.
I'm thinking of some other Webcam start-up that's just starting out...their competitors are surfing along, not having to pay for their own software development, because some dude in France is writing their drivers for them...for free...This guy is the newest 21st centry barrier to entry. - BOFH2, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Although I am 90% windows, I really can appreciate this guys effort. Most companies do not put this effort into 1 driver much less 235.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10Michel Xhaard, in my eyes you are a hero. One of to few. You have made a significant contribution to mankind. I respect you. I thank you. I hope more follow in your footsteps. You have secured a stone in the heritage of Linux, congratulations. INW!
- venom8599, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Stop including unrelated links. Digg doesn't have signatures, so you're having to copy & paste it in, which makes it even more annoying. It's probably why you keep having comments dugg down.
- dukeinlondon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I use the driver and it works like a charm. Shame then that there is so little cross platform video conferencing software.
- bjornski, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Neither.
If you read the actual Inquirer article at http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39291
You'll see it's 235. - SgtCrispy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Viva la France!
Awesome. -
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