Razer doesn’t care about Linux | Hacker News Reader

Razer doesn’t care about Linux

blogs.gnome.org

39 pointsmacco10 comments

Razer don't care about their customers full stop. Extremely poor customer service and low quality products. Their one-start Trustpilot page is a good read.

Worth pointing out that if someone like Richard Hughes offers to work on your firmware it's wise to accept the offer.

While I don't support Razer for their hardware choices, I have to side with them on this issue. LVFS is not the answer to firmware updates and it has quite a few architectural issues. Firmware should only be updated as a last resort to solve some critical bug or security issue and pushing frequent firmware updates is asking for trouble. LVFS and its developers should not assert themselves as the "industry" standard for pushing firmware updates and just because not everyone wants to be a part of that does not mean they "don't care about Linux".

Razer is not a "Linux" first company anyway and it does not help to cry about it on a blog or complain when their hardware does not work well on "Linux" in the first place.

Could you add a few more details why you think LVFS has architectural issues?

Why do you believe firmware shouldn't be updated regularly just like we're used to do it with regular software?

> Could you add a few more details why you think LVFS has architectural issues?

Updating firmware from a system that is in an unknown state has high risks, especially if untrusted software is being run (like on most Linux systems). What if the user pulls the power or there is not enough juice left in the battery when an update has started? Many consumer devices don't have fallback firmware to account for such issues. Not being able to revert cleanly to a last good known firmware if something goes wrong will be an issue.

> Why do you believe firmware shouldn't be updated regularly just like we're used to do it with regular software?

OEMs quite frequently push updates that break something since they can't account for all of the configurations that their hardware will be used; sometimes they push botched uCode updates or other components they can't fully account for.

So we should take away the power from the user to choose that for themself? How exactly does it hurt them to have unofficial Linux firmware?

> So we should take away the power from the user to choose that for themself?

Razer's lack of cooperation is not taking away freedom from the user. Razer did not promise to provide "Linux" support and they are not obligated to do so. The firmwares themselves are already non-free and generally have EULAs tied to them which take away that freedom . If you wanted that freedom of choice in the first place, you should have bought hardware that offers that.

> How exactly does it hurt them to have unofficial Linux firmware?

It does hurt Razer to have "unoffical Linux firmware" because they would have new liabilities, possible legal issues in terms of licenses or an image problem if an update results in a brick.

I can't believe how many people think they are entitled to support for something that was never claimed to be supported. If you want "Linux" support, buy hardware that offers just that.

Razer caters to gamers. 0.41% of steam users use Linux.

Let's be generous and triple that number, 1.2% of Pc gamers use Linux. Razer's decision makes sense to me.

Not sure why you're getting downvoted. Razer doesn't have to care about Linux.

I've been DIT for two large unicorns ($Bs) with the pull to do whatever I wanted. Both times we stayed with MacBooks because simply buying a single razerbook is like funding an indegogo campaign. We gave up trying to get one when they told us it would be like this for every purchase and at both companies we purchase over 100/month

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