NVIDIA May Be Trying To Prevent GeForce GPUs From Being Used In Data Centers

[phoronix]

Phoronix: NVIDIA May Be Trying To Prevent GeForce GPUs From Being Used In Data Centers

Making the rounds on the Internet this holiday weekend is an updated NVIDIA GeForce software license agreement prohibiting the use of their drivers in data-center deployments for consumer GPUs...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GeForce-No-Datacenters

[GunpowaderGuy]

this is a blatant violation of the rights the consumers have of using their products in the way they see fit * ( with exceptions , but not like this one )

[Filiprino]

GreedVIDIA.

Free Software please. And buyer rights.

[Vistaus]

this is a blatant violation of the rights the consumers have of using their products in the way they see fit * ( with exceptions , but not like this one )

I agree with you, but keep in mind that data centers are powered by companies, so they are not consumers.

[sireangelus]

Nvidia can be translated from the italian " invidia", meaning "envy". That always explained a lot.

[duby229]

Well I still believe unenforceable terms are just as good as no terms at all. For those of you that do this, just make certain nvidia doesn't know about it and then you will be completely golden. I assume that'll end up being the huge vast majority. this is just nVidia biting themselves in their own ass again. You gotta give them credit, they bend over backwards real well by now.

[stargeizer]

I agree with you, but keep in mind that data centers are powered by companies, so they are not consumers.

Wrong. From the viewpoint of Nvidia, the final users AREN'T THEIR CLIENTS. For Nvidia, their clients are ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, PNI, ZOTAC. They publicly list them as partners, but in truth, they sell to them their chips, and they make the software drivers to them. The quadro parts are sold directy from Nvidia or usually from PNY. But everyone knows that quadro parts are basically the same as consumer parts, Nvidia just disable some features based on part type and VBIOS, and charges a premium value from them.

Remember, in words of Jen-Hsun Huang: "NVIDIA is a software company". So expecting an open source driver or specs from them for their lucrative bussines of Software Drivers is out of the question (and expect more safeguards in their hardware to stop any open source attempt to do an open driver). Of course their employees can't say this publicly.

(For the record, the Jen-Hsun Huang quote was told when a spanish media interviewed him. an english translation can be found here ).

[ElectricPrism]

I agree with you, but keep in mind that data centers are powered by companies, so they are not consumers.

In America corporations have the same rights as an individual in the eyes of the law.

Arguing that the clause is illegal is completely plausible.

More likely than naught though data centers and render farms will dump nvidia for amd though.

[carewolf]

Enforcing. Yeah that would be a problem. Not for the reason you stated though, but because they are legally invalid unless presented and signed prior to a purchase.

[kpedersen]

Easy DRM solution.
The driver keeps contacting NVIDIA's servers. If too many connections come from one address, it means it is from a "data center". Then the server can tell the driver to disable itself!

I think they should do it. Consumers are quite happy to put up with Steam and I personally believe this will give them the best consumer consumer experience.

Of course, this DRM scheme won't be easy to enforce with their Linux or FreeBSD drivers so the best possible solution for consumers is to no longer provide Linux or FreeBSD drivers.

Actually, perhaps they stop selling consumer grade GeForce GPUs and get consumers to simply stream their software from them (with a hefty subscription fee of course). I reckon about 80% of the gamer world would whine on Facebook about it but then pay up and stream like good little consumers.

The future is going to be great! Stockpile your hardware and software now whilst you can. Merry Christmas