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  • #51
    Another question I have. If the reasons for having closed-source drivers are just third-party components, isn't it possible to open specifications for the video cards, and work closer with nouveau developers to produce what would later become THE nVidia graphics driver for Linux?

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    • #52
      Nvidia Question

      I have been using nvidia products since my first card, a Geforce 4. I have a very simple question, why not open source the drivers. I mean what do you have to loose ATI is so far behind you. I would think that if nothing else the publicity of releasing nvidia drivers would get you more customers. Remember the Linux community are the guys/girls generally making the IT Decisions at jobs.

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      • #53
        Originally posted by jander99 View Post
        Does nVidia plan to utilize something like GEM and KMS in upcoming driver releases so features like flicker-free booting is possible?
        I think Bridgman answered this one for both of them, to use KMS for output you must give up output control including crap like HDCP. So even if it were useful, which it mostly isn't since Catalyst/nVidia implement their own cross-platform version of things, they couldn't.

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        • #54
          Originally posted by Kjella View Post
          I think Bridgman answered this one for both of them, to use KMS for output you must give up output control including crap like HDCP. So even if it were useful, which it mostly isn't since Catalyst/nVidia implement their own cross-platform version of things, they couldn't.
          I'm not sure this is completely true nor whether he exactly said that. I do know though that rewriting nvidia or fglrx drivers for KMS would require entire rewrite in both userspace and kernelspace drivers for them. They would need to write userspace stuff to be compatible with libdrm and then kernelspace stuff so that they'd have a module that taps into DRM and plays with it like the opensource modules. It would not, however, possibly need to be opensource itself. "Just" implement the KMS DRM API instead of directly dealing with the kernel API. We're probably talking of years of rewrite work here.
          Correction: Well, they could always redesign their own KMS though... Wouldn't probably take any less time than the rewrite.

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          • #55
            what are the biggest drawbacks/annoyances of developing a closed source linux/bsd video driver?

            which part of X is most troublesome to work with?

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            • #56
              Originally posted by nanonyme View Post
              I'm not sure this is completely true nor whether he exactly said that.
              In the thread about KMS for Catalyst:
              "Modesetting includes output control. Output control includes HDCP, Macrovision, and a bunch of other things that prefer the dark."



              Of course, they should just stop wasting everyone's time and forget DRM, just like music sales didn't die from removing DRM from CDs and the iTunes store neither would movies. CSS is broken, HDCP is broken, AACS/BD+ is in practice broken and if they weren't there'd be hardhacks and the analog hole.

              Anyway, I guess I'm taking this thread way off topic.

              Question for nVidia:
              More and more focus is being put on universal shaders, rather than fixed-function hardware. Do you see the possbility of graphics drivers separating into two parts, one implementing basic access to shaders and the other on implementing DirectX/OpenGL/Cuda/OpenCL etc. in a manufacturer-independent way?

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              • #57
                Ooh, I've gone one!

                Now that Intel, AMD and even VIA are actively participating in the open source community, what are nVidia's plans for staying relevant in the Linux graphics market in future?

                (or if you want a different one)

                Why has nVidia chosen to release proprietary drivers for even non-graphics hardware like their motherboard chipsets, an area where every other manufacturer has been much less hostile to their customers?

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                • #58
                  Device driver parity with Windows

                  Can you comment on commonality and separation between the driver codebases for Windows and Linux, and how they are brought to functional equivalence?

                  With my current problem, I bought an nVidia 8400GS-based card specifically for it's rich capabilities for displaying on my "legacy" (Sony CRT) TV. After getting the card, I found that it had excessive overscan, and that the "overscan" option in xorg.conf no longer works for any 8000+ GPU. I've since heard that the "overscan" option has been reenabled for Windows, but is still not available in Linux.

                  Once upon a time, I thought I heard that the driver codebases had been merged, but this appears to not be the case. By the way, many blame the NTSC spec and old TVs, and try to place the burden there. This particular TV has worked correctly with EVERY other thing I've thrown at it as a signal source, including a Mac laptop and a PC laptop with an ATI graphics adapter. Only nVidia has overscan problems.

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                  • #59
                    What does nVidia think of what AMD/ATi has done to support open source drivers with 3D capabilities?

                    Has the work AMD/ATi done to support open source graphics card drivers caused people within the company to think following a similar path would be beneficial to the company's goals of selling people nVidia graphics cards?

                    Are there any future plans within nVidia to follow steps similar to AMD/ATi and release specifications and help with development of the open source driver (nouveau)?

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                    • #60
                      What possible reason(s) do I or anybody else have for buying/owning nvidia hardware given the history of poor manufacturing quality (I am, of course, referring to this kind of stuff: http://www.tmworld.com/blog/64000006...990031899.html ) and that we would be forced to use an unreliable binary driver of questionable security in contrast with AMD's superior manufacturing quality, lower prices, and reliable open sourced drivers given roughly equivalent overall performance?
                      Last edited by lbcoder; 01 September 2009, 10:39 AM.

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