Why does it matter that one particular project doesn't want to run/deal-with other OSes? I think his point was that the needs of the larger community (not just the Diablo Community) are best served by the older devices (and the drivers for their components) being open enough to support any particular OS, not just an open-Diablo.

If the group that is pursuing the opening up of these components isn't doing it for the larger community, then that group isn't worth giving any attention to, as they're just another myopic group only showing self interest ... instead of community interest. Not exactly in the spirit of the ideals of FOSS there.