Hi Aaron,

No big deal! Sorry that I sometimes seem very sensitive.

Three years ago, I and John-Paul Smetts of OpenBrick.Org
worked together on the OpenBrick ideals. We wanted to provide 
a hardware that was based on an open-source design, well 
supported by the open-source communities. Unfortunately,
it did not work out since we could not achieve the volumes,
to make us competitive. 

I have seen many of the system boards always include a CD
with Windows drivers. But, most of the sales have been
going to the Linux/BSD crowd. How many of the mini-ITX
boards are actually used in a Windows environment? How
many of them actually include a CD with Linux or BSD
drivers? Most of the time, we have to figure out the
driver issues ourselves.  In one case, we dropped a
video board with four (4) BT878A chips because the
manufacturer would not disclose how to program the
watchdog. We actually reverse-engineered it, but would
not dare to touch it due to legal issues.

Anyway, I am just hoping that as the open-source movement
keeps marching on, the communities will gain the benefits.

Thanks.
Bao

On Fri, Jun 16, 2006 at 12:27:06PM -0600, Aaron Cherman wrote:
> >Synetron Technology does not deal with retail quantities, and
> >most likely they will refer back to us.
> >
> >In volume quantities, it's a toss.  Sometimes, they do better.
> >And, sometimes, we do better.  We do talk to avoid stepping on
> >each other toes.
> 
> Sorry about that.  I did not read the entire thread.  I have purchased 1,2 
> and 3 unit orders from them although I will keep you in mind next time I 
> order.
> 
> 
> Aaron 
> 

-- 
Best Regards.
Bao C. Ha
Hacom OpenBrick Distributor USA http://www.hacom.net
voice: (714) 530-8817 fax: (714) 530-8818
8D66 6672 7A9B 6879 85CD 42E0 9F6C 7908 ED95 6B38