Messages in this thread | | | Date | Mon, 10 Jan 2005 16:54:39 -0800 | From | Matt Mackall <> | Subject | Re: starting with 2.7 |
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On Tue, Jan 11, 2005 at 09:19:24AM +1100, Dave Airlie wrote: > Say theoretically ATI decide tomorrow: > 1. GPL in kernel source code (ATI is based on the DRM so it isn't such > a leap of faith as say NVIDIA doing it...) > 2. clean it all up so that it follows every single kernel coding > practice to the letter > 3. submit it for inclusion into the kernel as a device driver, > drivers/char/drm/fglrx.c > > Now would you include it? we can't use the no-one is using it excuse, > as people are using fglrx already and many have no choice, the driver > would have no userspace applications other than the binary only 2D/3D > drivers they supply for X... ATI would then benefit from the kernel > development process for keeping the things up-to-date with respect to > interfaces etc...
I think so, yes. We'd be able to fix kernelspace bugs in it, for starters.
> In this way, people who are running on ppc etc would still not have or > be any closer to 3D acceleration for their graphics cards, but ATI > would have followed the rules as far as the kernel is concerned....
They'd certainly be closer in that userspace code is significantly easier to emulate and/or reverse engineer.
> The main reason 3D graphics drivers are the big one here as of course > we can't put OpenGL into the kernel, so it requires a split > kernel/userspace solution, and one is of little use without the other, > if the kernel one is GPL and userspace one is closed source how do > people sit with it? (uneasy?)
If the userspace portion is using a standard API and not just using the driver to open gaping holes in the kernel/user barrier, I see it as a step forward.
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