Product Internals

From: Clinton V. Weiss (cvweiss_at_comcast.net)
Date: 04/17/05 

Date: Sun, 17 Apr 2005 13:02:35 -0400

In the thread "Wireless in Linux needs HELP", Trent Buck stated:

> - write to hardware manufacturers asking them to publish
> information about the internals of their products.

I fully understand why companies would want to gain an advantage by
releasing their hardware products with features that improve on the
competition. I do not understand why a large majority of these
companies wish to hide the details of how to interface with their product.

Certainly these companies write their own interface for their target
(e.g. Microsoft Windows, Macintosh) but why not release the details so
that other developers can quickly and easily write software for the
unsupported target (e.g. legacy machines, Linux).

In doing so,the product can potentially be used by a larger customer
base which would then increase sales, which of course would increase
profit. Or perhaps my understanding of business disallows me to see the
reasons why.

Would someone with the proper business sense (meaning I don't want
anyone's 2 cents - I'd like facts) please explain the reasoning for
companies not to release details of how to interface with their
product's internals?

Relevant Pages

  • Product Internals
    ... In the thread "Wireless in Linux needs HELP", ... > information about the internals of their products. ... companies wish to hide the details of how to interface with their product. ... reasons why. ...
    (alt.os.linux.suse)
  • Product Internals
    ... In the thread "Wireless in Linux needs HELP", ... > information about the internals of their products. ... companies wish to hide the details of how to interface with their product. ... reasons why. ...
    (comp.os.linux)
  • Re: Does Python really follow its philosophy of "Readability counts"?
    ... interface is what's documented as being the interface. ... We're told Python doesn't have private attributes. ... internals were inaccessible from Python code. ... always believe that their reason is a good reason. ...
    (comp.lang.python)
  • Re: Read-only, as opposed to const member
    ... They never even know the underlying accessor code was changed ... >> should care about. ... If it takes a month to propogate interface changes ... is about, keeping those internals private. ...
    (comp.lang.cpp)
  • Re: OOP in Ruby?
    ... e.g. when implementing a particular algorithm I probably will first think about the internals and then decide which input or interface a class needs. ... In both cases though clarifying responsibilities of a class is the first and most important step IMHO. ...
    (comp.lang.ruby)