Linus Torvalds Calls NVIDIA The Worst Company Ever

[Calinou]

NVIDIA works and is cheaper (less power consumption and more quiet). AMD doesn't work. Even nouveau would beat Catalyst on some GPUs, I bet.

Th?orie du complot, quand tu nous tiens.

[deanjo]

At the end of the day, if you buy Nvidia, you buy a closed platform. Like PS3 or iPhone. People who want general-purpose, programmable hardware but Intel or AMD.

Sadly, most people don't mind closed platforms in this day and age.

Or like many many many other devices. How many android phones for example are truly open from top to bottom? Most are using closed blobs as well.

[pingufunkybeat]

Hey if you were the actual person developing the card that utilizes that silicon then you would have a right to expect that when you made the deal for that silicon suppliers product and stipulated it. However you are not the developer of that finished product and it is not sold to you as the raw processor to the end user nor have any such party entitled you to have that information, either the supplier or the end product vendor. Again, it is unreasonable to expect something that is not presented to you as an option in the first place. Just because the Dukes and the General Lee can jump down bridges don't expect Dodge to endorse, provide you with a how to or cover it under warranty for your failed attempts to replicate it.

At the end of the day, if you buy Nvidia, you buy a closed platform. Like PS3 or iPhone. People who want general-purpose, programmable hardware but Intel or AMD.

Sadly, most people don't mind closed platforms in this day and age.

[crazycheese]

Hey if you were the actual person developing the card that utilizes that silicon then you would have a right to expect that when you made the deal for that silicon suppliers product and stipulated it. However you are not the developer of that finished product and it is not sold to you as the raw processor to the end user nor have any such party entitled you to have that information, either the supplier or the end product vendor. Again, it is unreasonable to expect something that is not presented to you as an option in the first place. Just because the Dukes and the General Lee can jump down bridges don't expect Dodge to endorse, provide you with a how to or cover it under warranty for your failed attempts to replicate it.

Correct, you uncivilized rioters, eat your premium consumer-grade guan-o-hamburger with secret patented chocolate favouring*. The best (and only) food for everyone!
Otherwise our honorable Mr. Smith will shoot you as possible terrorists.
Chicken should get fat and juicy, and not ask questions!!

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[deanjo]

So we are where we are. People being forced to use closed-source systems with hardware they own. A microprocessor manufacturer deciding what you can run on your computer.

Hey if you were the actual person developing the card that utilizes that silicon then you would have a right to expect that when you made the deal for that silicon suppliers product and stipulated it. However you are not the developer of that finished product and it is not sold to you as the raw processor to the end user nor have any such party entitled you to have that information, either the supplier or the end product vendor. Again, it is unreasonable to expect something that is not presented to you as an option in the first place. Just because the Dukes and the General Lee can jump down bridges don't expect Dodge to endorse, provide you with a how to or cover it under warranty for your failed attempts to replicate it.

[deanjo]

Are you really sure of that? I don't think so.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...tem&px=MTEyNTE

Yup, absolutely as that 'rumor' has never been substantiated. You would think that AMD would be throwing up every type of good news PR there was if it was true now wouldn't you? They do for every other larger order but somehow this one would be the exception right?

[pingufunkybeat]

Why? Did they sell it to you and say that they would provide that?

I think that people should. Unfortunately, most people don't expect that.

If not then it is silly to 'expect' them to come forward with that information. WYSIWYG and it doesn't seem to hurt their product sales in the least (in fact they actually sell more then their competitor that does provide that information). IMHO, it is unreasonable to expect anything more then what is presented as is in the first place.

Of course, the average Bonzy-Buddy user who installs malware if it promises cute kittens on the desktop and write replies with their credit card information to Nigerian scammers, he doesn't don't care. And they are the majority.

So we are where we are. People being forced to use closed-source systems with hardware they own. A microprocessor manufacturer deciding what you can run on your computer.

Well, as long as it has Bonzy Buddy, everything is ok I guess....

[deanjo]

But everybody should expect companies to give the very basic info of how someone would go about to build up support for the hardware.

Why? Did they sell it to you and say that they would provide that? If not then it is silly to 'expect' them to come forward with that information. WYSIWYG and it doesn't seem to hurt their product sales in the least (in fact they actually sell more then their competitor that does provide that information). IMHO, it is unreasonable to expect anything more then what is presented as is in the first place.

[varikonniemi]

Aside from Torvalds' NVIDIA remarks near the end, the entire talk is worth watching.

Linus is what the world needs; people who speak the truth however unsexy it would be. Some may say that nvidia is good because they provide a reasonably good binary blob. That is true, but it has nothing to do with Linus's and the kernel developer community's experience with them. They do not care about blobs, they care about how the company works with them, and i have no problem believing that nvidia would be the most arrogant company to work with, just as he tries to points out in his famous style.

Linus is a Finn, we are kinda introverted people. We focus on the essence of things and strip off the unnecessary sugarcoating of courtesy.

Nobody expects a company to give away their technology, parts of drivers etc. But everybody should expect companies to give the very basic info of how someone would go about to build up support for the hardware. Just as AMD and most other manufacturers do. If they do not, i would go as far as saying it to be anticompetitive measures.

[RealNC]

People here care about their desktops. Android is a different platform. The use of the Linux kernel in Android is quite irrelevant to us.