Quote:
Originally Posted by theinfamousj
I am surprised that Firewire is being called a "standard" since it is proprietary. All this time I had equated "standard" with "open". Live and learn.
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That's never been true, so far as I can tell. A HUGE number of tech standards are proprietary, and open IP in mainstream commercial products is still the exception rather than the rule.
Note, the standards involved could be proprietary and still be available to use at no cost. This does happen.
The more typical model, though, has been to work to get a standard accepted and hope to get rich collecting license fees. Think DVD, MP3, Ethernet, PDF (later became free and open) for example.
Regarding Firewire in particular, I don't know the history, but it apparently changed from what you describe at some-point, because most Firewire devices are interoperable between mac and pc.