Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 22 Nov 2005 15:07:20 +0100 | From | Marc Koschewski <> | Subject | Re: [RFC] Small PCI core patch |
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* Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@kernel.crashing.org> [2005-11-22 13:27:57 +1100]:
> On Tue, 2005-11-22 at 01:34 +0000, Alan Cox wrote: > > On Maw, 2005-11-22 at 11:47 +1100, Dave Airlie wrote: > > > And funny enough unlike SCSI adapters and things for large server > > > installations, nobody seems to really care enough about graphics > > > cards, I've heard horror stories about how little Linux companies > > > > Its easy to see why > > > > The graphics market between Nvidia and ATI is extreme rivalry > > There have been some ugly patent lawsuits > > Good software tricks can make the weaker hardware win > > Its very hard to write > > On the other hand, there is little justification not to open source at > least the kernel & basic mode setting part. It's all plumbing and mode > setting stuff, monitor detection, etc... it's not part of any of the big > added value or IP stuff that can be found in the 3D engine. > > I've talked to them several times about that, trying to advocate really > only putting the GL -> engine command stream generation in a binary blob > (in userland where it belongs) and have everything else open sourced, > but they aren't interested. In many cases, the replies I get are along > the lines of "why would we do that ? nVidia doesn't" or "why could we > care", or "give us a business justification" (the later translates to: > prove us that by doing so, we'll sell that many more million cards, > which is obviously impossible) etc... They really doesn't give a shit > about what we think, and will continue to do so until they get a bit fat > lawsuite, that is my opinion at least.
I assume they will rather completely drop development of the driver instead of developing an OSS driver. I cannot imagine that the 'few' people using Nvidia cards on some non-Windows systems are enough to proceed developing the closed-source driver. Or maybe they just stop developing the driver to hit us hard in the face! So we're left with nothing than just some old closed-source crap. I think it's getting even more realistic when a lawsuit is knocking on their doors. Don't you think?
I use my Nvidia card without the Nvidia drivers for long time now. For pure X without games and just GNOME and coding I have no need to run the proprietary driver at all. But maybe for others (mostly for people with laptops where you cannot simply change video cards due to a vendor-designed form-factor) it could get worst. What is left for them? Run non-X environments on the laptop? Even run Windows on it? Puh!
A damn stupid circumstance with Nvidia in the end...
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