Again, We Have Another New NVIDIA Driver

[bugmenot]

Exactly. Now working driver is not everything I want. I see it philosophical, if I thought closed drivers were okay, then I could also use a mac (I used to), there are open source applications also possible. But I don't want to, and also I want my hardware to be supported for new kernel generations even if the maker of my card disappears. I want to be able to read the code. And there are many people who see it also in this way. I hate it to depend on an manufacture.

If you think closed drivers are okay, as long as they work, why don't you buy a mac?

[deanjo]

ah. you again. Why did I suspect if anybody was in need of getting shot down, again, it'd be you.

To directly answer your question: LOTS OF PEOPLE CARE

AMD didn't just up and start dropping their hardware and software documentation because they wanted to. They opened up their development tools because customers and end-users kept asking for literal years for access.

By the same token, while Intel's initial Open source 3d graphics code dump was largely a response to AMD buying up ATi, customer and end-user demand has seen a large quantity of their own code mature under open-licenses, not only their graphics chips, but their wireless cards as well.


To directly answer your implied statement, no it bloody doesn't work

There's a reason Nvidia lists half the stuff as beta. It's untested in a way that make's AMD's limited selection of tested distributions seem like a thorough and exhaustive test.

While I applaud Nvidia for putting a lot of their proprietary stuff up for end-user feedback before they finalize a driver set, it's nothing more than attempt to stay relevant when both competitors (Intel and AMD) are largely fostering genuine end-user built driver sets.

It's like a gilded cage. Yeah, it looks pretty, and might be pleasant to live in, but it's still a bloody cage.

Which leads into the counter for your final statement, end users don't just care about whether or not works.

If all end-users cared about was whether or not something worked, we'd all still be using Microsoft DOS with Corel Wordperfect. End users care about more. There's a reason the browser wars have re-ignited with 4 different relatively competent engines on the market (Gecko, Presto, IE, Webkit). There's a reason why Linux hasn't gone the way of the dodo in personal computer sales, and same with Apple.

If whether or not something worked was all most end-users cared about, we'd never be where we are today.

Btw, is there an ignore function or the like? I'm beginning to get the feeling that Dean is deliberately playing the part of flame-bait.

Uhhuh that opensource and very well maintained pulsbo driver works really well, as does the current intel driver. Gee that's sooooooooooooooo much better. I didn't say that a lot of people didn't want opensource drivers, I said most people just want ones that work. Working > opensource to a majority of end users.

Seriously ask yourself this why do people buy nvidia cards if they cared more about open drivers vs working blobs?

[Jimmy]

He can't see. He's trapped in that Open Source cage. The one where anything open is better than anything closed. Period. If you disagree you are evil, hate freedom, and "one of them."

In his world users love open source so much that they don't use adobe flash. No one uses Opera. No one uses the ATI Blob (that conveniently doesn't exist in freedom rants). No one cares about Wine because all it does is run closed source applications. No one cares about graphics performance because no one plays those binary only games. There wasn't any press at all over UT3 for Linux. No one cared, right? It's closed who would.

Open/Closed. Black/White. Hot/Cold. It's all or nothing. Pick your sides you can't be lukewarm or gray.

[rbmorse]

If all end-users cared about was whether or not something worked, we'd all still be using Microsoft DOS with Corel Wordperfect.

Actually, somewhere around 99% of "end-users" do run closed, proprietary video drivers...on Windows and OS X.

[deanjo]

He can't see. He's trapped in that Open Source cage. The one where anything open is better than anything closed. Period. If you disagree you are evil, hate freedom, and "one of them."

In his world users love open source so much that they don't use adobe flash. No one uses Opera. No one uses the ATI Blob (that conveniently doesn't exist in freedom rants). No one cares about Wine because all it does is run closed source applications. No one cares about graphics performance because no one plays those binary only games. There wasn't any press at all over UT3 for Linux. No one cared, right? It's closed who would.

Open/Closed. Black/White. Hot/Cold. It's all or nothing. Pick your sides you can't be lukewarm or gray.

Which leads to another question? Why would a person that is so anti-closed source buy a product that is known for no real opensource solution? If a person wants to run diesel in their vehicle they don't go out and buy a gas or electric vehicle.

If you think closed drivers are okay, as long as they work, why don't you buy a mac?

What makes you think I don't own one as well? Great platform being able to run pretty much any OS and some really great apps that has no equals in the OS arena even though OS has all the tools needed to create such apps. Again it all boils down to using what works, which involves windows for some apps, os x for others and linux with blobs.

[NSLW]

We've got 25th April and there is another driver update

[deanjo]

We've got 25th April and there is another driver update

Heh that's the same driver as in the article. It was released on the 23'rd.

[NSLW]

Heh that's the same driver as in the article. It was released on the 23'rd.

Yes you've got right.
So where is post about 180.53 drivers?
I could swear i saw 180.53 in that post which doesn't change the fact that nvidia released two drivers in two days.

[deanjo]

Yes you've got right.
So where is post about 180.53 drivers?
I could swear i saw 180.53 in that post which doesn't change the fact that nvidia released two drivers in two days.

With Michael sampling the wine in Italy the articles are lagging a bit.

[rv65]

https://launchpad.net/~thefirstm/+archive/ppa

As always Michael Marley is doing a great job of making this driver accessible to Ubuntu users. If you are using 8.04 to 9.04 then you can use this PPA. You'll need to add the key to your software sources. Click on the 1024R link twice and you can copy the key into a text editor. Then save it and add it to your software sources. You can add the repo links in your software sources. There is a pulldown menu for those who aren't using Jaunty. Michael Marley changed the version number due to apt.