GoKawiilAs you probably already know, I regularly get in contact with drawing tablet brands for reviews on my Youtube channel. I usually agree to do detailed video test of their models (see my hardware tag) but only at two condition: test the tablet on GNU/Linux, and only use Free/Libre and Open Source software for the test, including drivers.
I do that especially for the models I find interesting, but I also do that to report all the specifications of the hardware I receive to Peter Hutterer and Benjamin Tissoire at Red Hat. This way, they can transform the specs I can dump from the tablet into a Free/Libre and Open Source high quality driver for GNU/Linux, thanks to their udev-hid-bpf project.
But my last video review was one year ago. In fact, after finding it exhausting to go through all this process (dumping specs, testing the driver, testing and get an opinion of the drawing tablet, making the video review, writing the technical blog post), I decided to set up a new strategy.
The new strategy: direct collaboration with brands
The ultimate shortcut! Get tablet brands to collaborate directly for GNU/Linux in general and share their spec with the hid/input teams. Something like what Wacom has been doing for decades.
For that, I sent many emails, because with brands like XpPen, Gaomon, Huion, I'm not in contact with the technical department, but with the marketing department. Usually, after a few emails, I get a "we'll discuss that internally and get back to you if we're interested" type of answer and nothing. So, I usually kept pushing and insisting.
Making contact with the right people
But more recently, during a discussion with Gaomon, things became more promising: they actually connected me with someone technical. Someone working at "Shenzhen Huion Trend Technology Co.,Ltd.". Huion? Hehe, not really surprising: I had long observed in my reviews that the proprietary drivers of Gaomon, XpPen, Huion and Ugee all had a similar structure in their Debian packages and were using the same tools. Now I know what brand is in charge.
So, I really felt with this technical contact I was finally reaching the right person, and not only that, but someone who could be in charge of managing the drivers for four brands! I quickly sent them all the specifications, links, and method and invited them to contact Peter Hutterer and Benjamin Tissoire.
After that, I was genuinely excited and proud of myself: things were moving in the right direction, and all this volunteer work of emails was about to be fruitful.
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