NVIDIA Drops Their Open-Source Driver, Refers Users To VESA

[nanonyme]

nouveau is a fork of nv. It would not be as successful as it has been, if it were not for the nv and Utah codebases, and the various bits of programming information provided by nVidia

Good point, haven't thought of that. I was just thinking of going yay that the confusion with different drivers reduces a bit (there's still radeon and radeonhd going on, we'll see how long that continues) but I guess xf86-video-nv actually deserves a quiet moment while we're waiting for the final buryal.

[smitty3268]

I'm another one who thinks that nv was useless anyway, so this isn't that big of a deal. But I do think it makes reverse engineering a little bit more difficult for the nouveou developers, and it sounds like that's the main reason NVidia stopped, because they'd have to start putting in more and more 3d functionality with the 2d hardware going away.

In the end, this is just another reminder that Nvidia doesn't care about open source and isn't going to do anything to try to change that. Whether that bothers you or not depends on your viewpoint.

[MostAwesomeDude]

nouveau is a fork of nv. It would not be as successful as it has been, if it were not for the nv and Utah codebases, and the various bits of programming information provided by nVidia.

You may continue raging. :3

[mlau]

If your operating system cannot do anything beyond a text terminal and an unaccelerated framebuffer without injecting a binary blob into it, then it is not a Free operating system.

Your definition of "Free Operating Systems" depends on accelerated
framebuffer? Your narrow-minded views of Free software do more harm
than good me thinks.

[pingufunkybeat]

But isn't it implied in the concept of a free operating system that I am also free to choose to run non-free software?

If your operating system cannot do anything beyond a text terminal and an unaccelerated framebuffer without injecting a binary blob into it, then it is not a Free operating system.

Once you have a fully functioning Free operating system, I agree, you can run whatever you want on it. Maya, Photoshop, Heroes of Newearth, whatever you like. But if you need a blob to watch a movie or resize a window without waiting for a minute, then it's not much of a "system".

[pingufunkybeat]

I'd like to point out that I don't really care about the decision to drop the "nv" driver, which was a pile of crap anyway.

If nVidia simply released enough documentation to write an open-source driver (like ATi did), I'd be perfectly happy with nVidia. Then at least other people (nouveau developers) would be able to write good free drivers.

[V!NCENT]

This is exactly why I am buying AMD ATI cards. More bang for the bug and a better product. Dead simple. Suck it down nVidia <_<'

And Synthil, what the fsck is that about seperior, Windows and Mac is one swntence? KDE whipes the floor with those outdated tech GUI's. What's this BS about the desktop being a liability for the Linux kernel? AmaroK Vs. iTunes Vs. Windows Media Player. Kdenlive Vs. iMovie Vs. Windows Movie Maker Vs. Sony Vegas. KMymoney Vs. Quicken (thats what it's called right?) or any other personal financing software for that matter.

My Sony mp3 player is awesome. Way more awesome than the Zune and the iPod. It works with AmaroK like a charm.

The day Steam comes native to Linux I will literaly ritualy burn all my Windows disks. I'm glad I don't own anything Apple has ever made. Both companies suck and their products suck even harder.
/rant && /truth

[kevinbenko]

While I may be in the minority on my position, I can find no fault with Nvidia dropping their FOSS driver and opting to keep their real driver proprietary.
Within the past month, I purchased another computer and one of the things I insisted on was that the graphics chipset be Nvidia. And, yes, the machine runs Linux exclusively. I have a DVD drive in my computer, and I'm sure that many Linux users have DVD drives. But, in the United States, I am not permitted to watch some DVDs on my DVD drive unless I use a set of codecs that I am not, legally, permitted to use. Similarly with the MP3 codecs.

Yes, it is my choice to do these things. It is my choice to run proprietary software/codecs on my Linux machine as a matter of my own convenience.

But isn't it implied in the concept of a free operating system that I am also free to choose to run non-free software?

And, yes, RMS would not be pleased with this.
But Linc Fessenden would approve.

[pingufunkybeat]

Who's not allowing anybody to run a completely open-source system? If you want a completely open-source system with respect to software, nVidia is clearly not the best choice of graphics card vendor. Simply choose another.

Which is what I did.

I can still find nVidia's stance on open-source software ("you don't need it, here's your blob, shut up") sad.

Are there any vendors providing completely unfettered access to their hardware documentation? If not then they are only being more open than nVidia, but not completely open so they would be at least partially guilty of what you claim nVidia are guilty of. Last time I checked even Intel were filtering all their info through their legal team.

Last time I checked, both ATi and Intel opened up virtually all the documentation necessary to write open-source drivers. nVidia have never provided anything.

If partially guilty refers to the closed-off DRM parts needed for Hollywood movies, then yeah, they are partially guilty (I'd like documentation for that too), but you have to admit that it's a fundamentally different approach toward openness.

I might add that if your ideology is all about open development, where are all of the calls to the hardware guys to provide open source hardware?

I'd love it!

But until then, I still prefer closed hardware with fully open specs and documentation and open-source drivers to closed hardware with fully closed specs and no documentation, which only run using closed-source software.

I understand that for some people this is not a big issue. It's not a big issue for me if they choose to run closed binary blob drivers. But I'd like to be able run an open source system. There are many closed-source ones to choose from if you want the best binary performance. If the biggest GPU manufacturer (discrete cards, not on-board solutions) does not want you to run their hardware on an open-source system, then this is sad.

I feel that device drivers for crucial hardware components are very different from a 3d modelling tool. Imagine if you had to download a binary driver to get Linux to work on your CPU. This is not why people run open-source systems.

nVidia aren't getting pissy.

Badly worded on my part. There are fanboys on the internet who get pissy whenever somebody asks for documentation or open drivers.

I think that this is a reasonable thing to ask for.

[kraftman]

Again, kraftman, rhetoric! Linux is obviously the best solution for us, but commercial and global community feeling is definitely opposed to it.

Ok, I missed some of your posts