A Gift To The Nouveau Developers

Unlike the open-source AMD camp that now has deep roots going back to AMD thanks to their new open-source strategy with four full-time RadeonHD developers and even access to pre-production hardware, this is far different for the open-source NVIDIA side. While we've received information that NVIDIA may be plotting an open-source strategy, the Nouveau developers have yet to hear anything from NVIDIA nor do they expect any communication (as was stated in the Nouveau Companion 34). The Nouveau developers are simply working on this open-source 2D/3D NVIDIA driver in their spare time and with their own hardware -- they don't have any corporate backing. The Nouveau team relies upon the community for testing and contributing of any spare hardware, while they did raise $10,000 in a pledge drive but are still working on obtaining that money tax-free.

As is occasionally reported in the Nouveau Companions, they will receive old NVIDIA graphics cards from interested community members who will pass on their old parts. However, some of the Nouveau developers are still running on sub-1GHz desktop machines and other hardware we don't even want to think about. It's a pity. At Phoronix though, we've just prepared our first shipment (of what will hopefully be many more to come) of hardware to better equip some of these Nouveau developers. Among these parts are DDR2 memory, Intel Pentium D and AMD Sempron processors, and a GeForce 7050 motherboard for GeForce 7 IGP work.

If you've got extra hardware lying around, be sure to get in contact with the Nouveau project (or other deserving free software projects).