NVIDIA's Graphics Driver Will Run Into Problems With Linux 5.3 On IBM POWER

[edwaleni]

There is a reasonable quantity of NVidia running on Redhat in both Power and x86. I am thinking that Redhat (nee: IBM) will find a way to work this out.

NVidia has a large amount of GPU compute on Linux and anything that will disrupt this somewhat profitable niche will not be overlooked.

NVidia is also a supporting partner of the OpenPOWER group.

[akuhtr]

Do you realize that that's how Capitalism works? You hold your secrets and make your money for as long as you can. Not everyone can figure out a good blend of Capitalism and Communism like AMD has.

I do find it funny and very ironic that Nvidia is Team Green, the color of money. and that AMD is Team Red, the color of Communism.

I don't think that is how capitalism works, capitalism is agnostic for opensource/closetsource. AMD is as much capitalist as NVidia, two ways but same goal, make more money.

[skeevy420]

There is a reasonable quantity of NVidia running on Redhat in both Power and x86. I am thinking that Redhat (nee: IBM) will find a way to work this out.

NVidia has a large amount of GPU compute on Linux and anything that will disrupt this somewhat profitable niche will not be overlooked.

NVidia is also a supporting partner of the OpenPOWER group.

Yep, and due to all of that, I'd wager that either IBM or Nvidia will either add the removed components to the out-of-tree driver (if possible), figure out a way to get the removed components re-added to the kernel, or start maintaining out-of-tree patches that distributions can apply to their source tree to re-enable Nvidia support on effected platforms.

As an AMD user and supporter, I feel odd defending Nvidia here.

[skeevy420]

I don't think that is how capitalism works, capitalism is agnostic for opensource/closetsource. AMD is as much capitalist as NVidia, two ways but same goal, make more money.

Pure, unregulated Capitalism...that's exactly how it works. That's why so many people consider it and greed to be the root of all evil.

Loggers don't replace trees unless explicitly told to (regulations). Strip miners don't restore the land they screw over unless regulated to do so. Fish industries will wipe entire species out unless regulated otherwise. Cars pollute and pollute and pollute unless regulated not to. The only time any of those groups share their methods and technology is when regulations force them.

(American) Capitalism is essentially "fuck you, I'm gonna get mine; dammit, those regulations are taking my profits". Using others and their technology without giving back is all part of the game. That includes anyone from Nvidia using the work of kernel developers with minimal to no contributions back to a shitty job that pays the minimal wage with no benefits -- both are guilty of doing the bare minimum to maximize profits at the expense of others.

[thedukesd]

Breaking things because well it's not used by our code is just bad.
If you want to be take serious you need to maintain the compatibility simple as that.

AMD and Intel can be happy have opensource drivers, when you have issues with various Linux games and game devs blame it on AMD/Intel drivers and Mesa devs close your bug with not our bug you've done nothing, and well when the same game just happy works with NVIDIA proprietary drivers you are left with 2 simple possibilities:
1) look for another game and well decent games are a rarity in Linux
2) buy an NVIDIA gpu and use their proprietary drivers
(you can say you have the option to patch Mesa to work with the game, sometimes that's not an option when the game goes on another render path when it see Mesa and you don't actually manage to figure out what on earth it doesn't like at Mesa (good look fixing an incomplete render path when you don't have access to game sources))

My personal opinion is that AMD opensourced their drivers because they just wanted to free more resources. Anyway their proprietary drivers were awfull when you compared them with what NVIDIA had.

I have 2 blocking reasons that stop me from fully moving to Linux:
1) way too few interesting games
2) lack of hardware decode in browsers (I need that because well I don't have enough cores)

You will say what games... Well Linux is just not appealing for gaming community due to the lack of interesting games...
And... the ones used with Office will just not like Libre or Open Office.
If we cut the gamers and the ones using Office well... the remaining ones can just use an Android phone/tablet for the rest... Keep in mind this is from a home user point of view. (From server point of view... do you even need a gpu for that?!?)

Don't get me wrong but how can someone that write an application for linux can be sure that his application will still work with a newer kernel? Why I say this? Maybe at some point they will decide to remove some code from the kernel because it's no longer used in the kernel and they don't care that other applications depend on that code because it's just not their code so not their problem. So the dev should patch it because someone working at kernel decide to show him the middle finger?

Breaking things because it doesn't affect your code won't bring applications or developers to/for your OS simple as that.

[tuxd3v]

NVidia has a large amount of GPU compute on Linux and anything that will disrupt this somewhat profitable niche will not be overlooked.
NVidia is also a supporting partner of the OpenPOWER group.

For sure IBM will add a Kernel Driver, like AMD did, and that is the way to go..

I don't think that Nvidia GPU Compute on Linux, is a niche market..
I think its one of the biggest business ever, and growing to almost exponential levels nowadays..

[Guest]

Sounds like good news to me. NVIDIA deserves the worst, and I would applaud kernel developers if they made changes just to make driver development hell for NVIDIA. Considering how bad they've been, they just deserve it. The simple solution is to stop buying their awful GPUs. I've sure learned my lesson.

[Britoid]

There is a reasonable quantity of NVidia running on Redhat in both Power and x86. I am thinking that Redhat (nee: IBM) will find a way to work this out.

NVidia has a large amount of GPU compute on Linux and anything that will disrupt this somewhat profitable niche will not be overlooked.

NVidia is also a supporting partner of the OpenPOWER group.

They're likely all running LTS kernels so they won't be affected for a long time.

[akuhtr]

Pure, unregulated Capitalism...that's exactly how it works. That's why so many people consider it and greed to be the root of all evil.

Loggers don't replace trees unless explicitly told to (regulations). Strip miners don't restore the land they screw over unless regulated to do so. Fish industries will wipe entire species out unless regulated otherwise. Cars pollute and pollute and pollute unless regulated not to. The only time any of those groups share their methods and technology is when regulations force them.

(American) Capitalism is essentially "fuck you, I'm gonna get mine; dammit, those regulations are taking my profits". Using others and their technology without giving back is all part of the game. That includes anyone from Nvidia using the work of kernel developers with minimal to no contributions back to a shitty job that pays the minimal wage with no benefits -- both are guilty of doing the bare minimum to maximize profits at the expense of others.

You need look at what goverment controll do. My country (czech republic) has been ecologicaly devastated by leftist. Our forest are destroyed by spruce bark beetle, because goverment controlled what they use for replacement a now we have monocultural forests.

Have you ever heard of companies like red hat? System76, Canonical, Valve?
Capitalism never choose one specific way, capitalism diversify and opensource is one way. Who you think contribute into linux? Corporations, because, it's profitable. NVidia now can see losses caused by their decisions. Now they must find another way for their drivers. My next GPU will be from AMD because AMD has open drivers and I vote by my wallet against NVidia's proprietary drivers. If enough people think the same way, it will be a better decision to have opensource drivers on linux from the capitalist perspective. Unlike other systems, capitalism have feedback, if you buy goods from companies which choose ways you don't like, it is your fault, your wallet can force them change their minds. Govermnet regulation is only way into hell.

[nivedita]

Sounds like good news to me. NVIDIA deserves the worst, and I would applaud kernel developers if they made changes just to make driver development hell for NVIDIA. Considering how bad they've been, they just deserve it. The simple solution is to stop buying their awful GPUs. I've sure learned my lesson.

lol. AMD's latest cards can barely keep up with NVIDIA's 3yo cards. Someone's got awful GPUs and it ain't the green team.

Chris Hellwig is an ass. If he'd actually been working for a POWER9 company he'd be fired for this stunt.