restore2003 wrote:
They could get a % share of the hardware sold, which they created a driver for
It's a nice idea, in theory. But how would you actually "skim" the % for the developers? I could run out and buy a Radeon anywhere I like, for example, how does the developer get his share? The hardware manufacturers would never do anything like this, a few thousand extra boards sold to them is so minor it's not even worth the effort. As Bill & I have said before, ATI was very reluctant to even allow us to write a driver for the Amiga. Bill, thankfully, convinced them, but ATI wanted to contribute absolutely no expense or time. In fact, after a few emails to their engineers from us, they started complaining. And they /never/ wanted a phone call or email to their support people about using a Radeon on an Amiga. So, they were willing to contribute absolutely nothing, zero dollars and zero time. Note that I'm not bashing ATI for this, this is a sound business decision on their part -- the fact that they even gave us the documentation was wonderful.
Also, I think you under-estimate the time & effort involved in writting hardware drivers, making the little % they'd receive not worth all the time and expense for the developer. Forefront, for example, would be very happy if we break even on the Radeon driver development costs, but that's not likely to happen.
Unfortunately, as Bill said, the only way to to get paid for driver development is to charge the people who actually want the thing.
