From The Linux Foundation

Some of the language in this document presupposes too much.

"A TOE net stack is closed source firmware" should read: "At this time, all the TOE net stacks that we know of use closed source firmware.".

"TOE is a black box" should read: "All the existing TOEs that we know of are black boxes".

And so on.

Now suppose a vendor changes to using open-source firmware for its NIC and TOE. Would the Linux developers then consider officially supporting it? The answer should be made clear.

If the answer is No, then no vendor will be motivated to open up its TOE.

But if the answer is a Yes or a Likely Yes, then this document should say so. This would provide some inducement to NIC vendors to switch to open source.

Rahul