Linux hackers volunteer their services

Hackers have a bad rap. Just look at movies like Hackers and The Net or the reactionary reporting in most mainstream publications (OMG the hackers are coming!). As we geeks know, however, hackers aren't all bad: they often discover security vulnerabilities first, release patches before the big guys get around to it and entertain us with their pocket protectors and misguided fashion sense. Well now, hackers are aiming to make yet another significant contribution to our lives: drivers. Members of the open-source community have volunteered their services to device manufacturers in an effort to increase the number of Linux drivers available. In a blog entry, infamous kernel hacker Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote, "The Linux kernel community is offering all companies free Linux driver development. No longer do you have to suffer through all of the different examples in the Linux Device Driver Kit, or pick through the thousands of example drivers in the Linux kernel source tree trying to determine which one is the closest to what you need to do." For many companies, Linux driver development is something that's not worth the time and money required. Will companies be willing, however, to outsource development to the open-source community, even if it is free?

For more on the hacker volunteers:
- see this eWeek article