geez now I feel like a big jerk as this article is less about some linux drivers becoming orphans as much as about a person whos disease is progressing to the point of not being able to keep up. Man I still think about earnest and hope he is ok as he can be.

and this is the thing about open source. If a proprietary driver is abandoned it has to be reverse engineered to get the hardware to work but if a driver becomes an orphan people can still use the last version and a person or an organization can pick it up if they have the chops and get it going.