一些硬體製造商拒絕告訴我們如何為他們的硬體撰寫驅動程式。其他的則要求簽署不公開的協議才能取用文件，以阻止我們發佈 Linux 驅動程式原始碼。

因為我們沒有被授權取用這些設備的文件，它們自然不會在 Linux 下運作。您可以幫我們去告訴那些製造商，要求他們釋出文件。如果有足夠多的人要求，他們將認識到自由軟體社群也是一個重要的市場。

Windows 規格的調變解調器和印表機的增長是一個令人不安的趨勢。在某些情況下它們專為微軟的 Windows 作業系統所設計設計並且標有 “WinModem” 或 “專為以 Windows 為基礎的電腦製造”字樣。這通常是省掉硬體的內嵌處理器，將其工作交給 Windows 驅動程式並由您的電腦的處理器執行。這樣做是為了降低硬體成本，但是這樣常常不能為使用者節省任何開銷，並且可能還會與相同功能但保留內嵌處理器的設備昂貴。

You should avoid Windows-specific hardware for two reasons. The first is that the manufacturers do not generally make the resources available to write a Linux driver. Generally, the hardware and software interface to the device is proprietary, and documentation is not available without a non-disclosure agreement, if it is available at all. This precludes it being used for free software, since free software writers disclose the source code of their programs. The second reason is that when devices like these have had their embedded processors removed, the operating system must perform the work of the embedded processors, often at real-time priority, and thus the CPU is not available to run your programs while it is driving these devices. Since the typical Windows user does not multi-process as intensively as a Linux user, the manufacturers hope that the Windows user simply won't notice the burden this hardware places on their CPU. However, any multi-processing operating system, even Windows 2000 or XP, suffers from degraded performance when peripheral manufacturers skimp on the embedded processing power of their hardware.

You can help improve this situation by encouraging these manufacturers to release the documentation and other resources necessary for us to program their hardware, but the best strategy is simply to avoid this sort of hardware until it is listed as working in the Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO.