NVIDIA's Oldest Legacy Driver Will Not Gain New Support

[pingufunkybeat]

What about KDE or Gnome is so important that you would need the latest release or would stop you from using any of the backporting services that exist?

The KDE 1 -> KDE 2 migration was rather important.

The point remains that any update to a central part of the system will force you to build everything that depends on that library from source. It's not just "building one application from source", it's building half of your system from source.

The power of Debian is in the high quality package repositories. The power of Debian stable is that the packages do not break things when you install them, which makes it attractive for servers and other situations where stability is important. The more you rely on the provided packages, the more stable and comfortable it is to use. You trade the bleeding-edge software for stability and maintainability.

Installing binary blobs into your kernel and compiling random stuff from source (and recompiling it over and over every time there is a security update) defeats the purpose of Debian stable, IMHO.

If it rocks your boat, then have fun doing it.

[V!NCENT]

-"Why are you using Linux?"
"Because it makes me cool"
-"So strip naked and sit in a freezer, its the same effect"
"...?"
-"...!"

"But... BUT.... look!"

[yogi_berra]

"It doesn't work"
-"You need the latest version of Pidgen"
"Where can I download that?"
-"You can grab the latest source at-"
"The latest what?"
-"The latest source code... it's at-"
"What? Is that the installer?"
-"The uhm... ah fsck it"
"Are you going to help me or not?"
-"It uhm... well you see..."
"What?"
-"You need to download the source folder over there"
"Okey... I opened the folder. What file do I need to click on?"
-"You need to open up a terminal first"
"A what?"
-"Are you using gnome?"
"What is Gnome?"

And so on and so forth...

-"Why are you using Linux?"
"Because it makes me cool"
-"So strip naked and sit in a freezer, its the same effect"
"...?"
-"...!"

[yogi_berra]

Ever tried compiling all of KDE?

What about KDE or Gnome is so important that you would need the latest release or would stop you from using any of the backporting services that exist?

[jmcharron]

"It doesn't work"
-"You need the latest version of Pidgen"
"Where can I download that?"
-"You can grab the latest source at-"
"The latest what?"
-"The latest source code... it's at-"
"What? Is that the installer?"
-"The uhm... ah fsck it"
"Are you going to help me or not?"
-"It uhm... well you see..."
"What?"
-"You need to download the source folder over there"
"Okey... I opened the folder. What file do I need to click on?"
-"You need to open up a terminal first"
"A what?"
-"Are you using gnome?"
"What is Gnome?"

And so on and so forth...

Opensuse build service is wonderfull BTW

[FunkyRider]

"It doesn't work"
-"You need the latest version of Pidgen"
"Where can I download that?"
-"You can grab the latest source at-"
"The latest what?"
-"The latest source code... it's at-"
"What? Is that the installer?"
-"The uhm... ah fsck it"
"Are you going to help me or not?"
-"It uhm... well you see..."
"What?"
-"You need to download the source folder over there"
"Okey... I opened the folder. What file do I need to click on?"
-"You need to open up a terminal first"
"A what?"
-"Are you using gnome?"
"What is Gnome?"

And so on and so forth...

- Do you have a gun?
Yes?
- Does it have bullets in it?
Yes?
- Can you pull it out and point to your head?
Done?
- Can you pull the trigger?
Bam!!!!!!!!!!

-- Problem solved!

[V!NCENT]

Because it is so difficult to compile something...

"It doesn't work"
-"You need the latest version of Pidgen"
"Where can I download that?"
-"You can grab the latest source at-"
"The latest what?"
-"The latest source code... it's at-"
"What? Is that the installer?"
-"The uhm... ah fsck it"
"Are you going to help me or not?"
-"It uhm... well you see..."
"What?"
-"You need to download the source folder over there"
"Okey... I opened the folder. What file do I need to click on?"
-"You need to open up a terminal first"
"A what?"
-"Are you using gnome?"
"What is Gnome?"

And so on and so forth...

[pingufunkybeat]

This certainly depends. Ever tried compiling all of KDE?

Of course this means that everything that links against Qt and/or KDE needs to be compiled from source. That's more than half of your system.

This is the reason why I moved away from Debian in the end.

[yogi_berra]

That's understandable, but it is kind of the point of Debian stable not to install new version of drivers.

Actually the point of any "stable" distribution is to avoid the 6-month re-install, re-configure, and fix what they broke this time cycle that makes desktop Linux a pain to use for everyone involved whether they admit it publicly or not. "Rolling releases" just speed up that cycle, they don't fix it.

It's not just drivers, you'll have problems installing any recent software.

Because it is so difficult to compile something...

[Anssi]

The 71.xx driver does not even have X.org server 1.6 support, so NVIDIA not adding 1.7 or 1.8 support doesn't really come as a much of a surprise.

--
Anssi Hannula
Maintainer of NVIDIA drivers on Mandriva