NVIDIA Loses Huge GPU Order Due To Linux Blob

[Wilfred]

Like was so quickly done on AMD cards? ...oh wait a second...

Basically, it appears to me that most in the Linux world would rather have an open driver then one that actually, you know, works.

Ah, that is the problem right there. The free driver usually works more reliably, less crashes and so than the fglrx/nvidia.ko driver. A friend of mine had to do support for an organization which did 3d stuff and used nvidia cards on linux and he really hated the stability of those things, they crashed often.

[johnc]

Like was so quickly done on AMD cards? ...oh wait a second...

Basically, it appears to me that most in the Linux world would rather have an open driver then one that actually, you know, works.

Pretty much.

I still have yet to read on this site a compelling reason for NVIDIA to do all these things people here are clamoring for.

There are some things I would like to see too, but none of them revolve around NVIDIA promoting my religion of choice.


This is one of the reasons that Android never took off. Consumers don't like functioning binary blobs and demand vendors respect the open source community. Hence Android is mired in the 1% of mobile markets. ...oh wait a second...

[gamerk2]

Even then, they could release more documentation. If AMD/ATI can do it, so can nvidia. And perhaps stuff like the HDMI audio can then be reverse engineered by the developer community.

Like was so quickly done on AMD cards? ...oh wait a second...

Basically, it appears to me that most in the Linux world would rather have an open driver then one that actually, you know, works.

[Wilfred]

I'm pretty sure they have third-party licensed IP in their drivers and hardware.

Even simple stuff like video codecs.

Even then, they could release more documentation. If AMD/ATI can do it, so can nvidia. And perhaps stuff like the HDMI audio can then be reverse engineered by the developer community.

[johnc]

Exactly! Arguing that the device can be cloned by anyone who read it's driver is just as stupid as claiming that anyone who ever saw a banknote can now print money? Why the fuck aren't they getting it⁈

I'm pretty sure they have third-party licensed IP in their drivers and hardware.

Even simple stuff like video codecs.

[?John?]

Nice to see you getting fucked, blobbers!

open drivers are grossly inadequate in terms of providing anything you need to duplicate the hardware

The specifications must already exist and it shouldn't cost much to release them. They are effectively APIs to the hardware, and as Oracle recently found out, you can't even copyright an API. There is next-to-no cost in releasing these specifications, and as we have seen, billions to be lost by not releasing them.
They can't lose "IP" because no-one can make a chip from the programming specifications - there simply isn't any implementation information contained in them.

Exactly! Arguing that the device can be cloned by anyone who read it's driver is just as stupid as claiming that anyone who ever saw a banknote can now print money? Why the fuck aren't they getting it⁈

[smitty3268]

*facepalm*

All this article states is that hey didn't get a potential new customer. How people get from that to "they lost money" is... well, facepalm.

Losing out on an opportunity for money is commonly expressed as "they lost money". That's just the way people talk in english. I know it doesn't make literal sense, but neither do a lot of colloquialisms or common expressions.

[johnc]

Tell that to the shareholders.

Let's see how they respond to this "news".

Of course if this "news" doesn't end up in IBD or some reputable news source, they'll probably never know about it.

Not sure how many NVDA investors are looking through the Phoronix forums for investment advice.

[entropy]

*facepalm*

All this article states is that hey didn't get a potential new customer. How people get from that to "they lost money" is... well, facepalm.

Tell that to the shareholders.

[Gusar]

this article?

*facepalm*

All this article states is that hey didn't get a potential new customer. How people get from that to "they lost money" is... well, facepalm.