NVIDIA Denies Opening Up Its Driver

[duby229]

I think that post is a bit one sided. Sure, nVidia's drivers have problems, but what driver (open or closed) doesn't? It's not like open source drivers are more stable.

But it makes me wonder.. how would free desktop adoption be with only open source drivers? Well, for one, we could kiss next gen gaming goodbye..

Which is the point and is 100% nVidia's fault for not supporting an open driver. Dont blame open source software, put the blame squarely where it belongs at nVidia. If nVidia wants there hardware to work once binaries are locked out then --they-- need to get on the ball. It's there hardware, and if they want to contibue selling it, then they better do something right now while they still can...

Like I already said, nVidia has no real future. ATi has potential, but they'll always be "number 2" as long as they go down the path they have chosen. Take a look at just about every major innovation being made today, and you'll see that it is being either developed by, or implemented first in Intel's open drivers. Not ATi's binary blob, or ATi's open drivers, or nVidia's binary blob.

It is Intel that is shaping the future and the reason they are shaping the future is there commitment to open source.

[Redeeman]

Intel already added a loader for a binary part to the driver, maybe then they will use it.

didnt they remove that?

also, dont you think larabee will need an entirely new driver?

[Chris]

Which is the point and is 100% nVidia's fault for not supporting an open driver. Dont blame open source software, put the blame squarely where it belongs at nVidia. If nVidia wants there hardware to work once binaries are locked out then --they-- need to get on the ball. It's there hardware, and if they want to contibue selling it, then they better do something right now while they still can...

I have no idea what you're talking about. It's not nVidia's fault that other companies hold patents on technologies next-gen gaming relies on (S3 for texture compression, SGI for floating point/HDR rendering, MS supposedly for programmable shaders). These are things open drivers cannot have if they want to be patent free (with the exception of the MS thing, given how we know MS likes to throw FUD around). If open drivers became the norm, these are the kinds of features we lose. That is in no way nVidia's fault. And I wouldn't hold your breath for a binary driver lock-out. Several patches have been proposed for the Linux kernel already to block loading any non-GPL driver.. they've all been rejected.

Take a look at just about every major innovation being made today, and you'll see that it is being either developed by, or implemented first in Intel's open drivers. Not ATi's binary blob, or ATi's open drivers, or nVidia's binary blob.

Like geometry shaders, sRGB rendering, and HDR rendering? Can't forget about CUDA and whatever AMD offers..

[duby229]

I have no idea what you're talking about. It's not nVidia's fault that other companies hold patents on technologies next-gen gaming relies on (S3 for texture compression, SGI for floating point/HDR rendering, MS supposedly for programmable shaders). These are things open drivers cannot have if they want to be patent free (with the exception of the MS thing, given how we know MS likes to throw FUD around). If open drivers became the norm, these are the kinds of features we lose. That is in no way nVidia's fault. And I wouldn't hold your breath for a binary driver lock-out. Several patches have been proposed for the Linux kernel already to block loading any non-GPL driver.. they've all been rejected.

Like geometry shaders, sRGB rendering, and HDR rendering? Can't forget about CUDA and whatever AMD offers..

100% opengl compliance. That is the requisite. Nothing more and nothing less. We dont need more bloat. MS or anybody else can patent whatever they want. The sole objective should be nothing less then 100% opengl compatibility. If AMD, nVidia, SGI, Intel, IBM, and every other major player in the graphics market got together and standardized development efforts we'd be 10 years ahead of where we are today. Instead we have an opengl specification that is outdated and in severe need of modernization.

nVidia aint doint it. AMD aint doing it. Intel is. And they are doing it completely using open drivers.

Heres the bottom line, Binary blobs --will-- be locked out of the kernel sooner or later. At this point it is inevitable. The only company who is prepared for that is Intel. Your customers arent going to leave Linux, not with how heavily invested companies like the one I work for are, but they will leave you and move to Intel. Linux market isnt going anywhere, but your share in that market will.

[Chris]

100% opengl compliance. That is the requisite. Nothing more and nothing less. We dont need more bloat. MS or anybody else can patent whatever they want. The sole objective should be nothing less then 100% opengl compatibility.

Owing to bugs, I've never had an issue with nVidia's OpenGL implementation. Their hardware is more than capable, unlike Intel's.

Binary blobs --will-- be locked out of the kernel sooner or later. At this point it is inevitable.

Says who?

[deanjo]

Says who?

Not Linus. He already said he won't have any part of that.

[bridgman]

This is where the fun starts. Linus has refused to push those changes into the tree himself, and he is violently opposed to having developers dictate how Linux will be used, but as long as someone else (eg a major distro) picks up the changes first he is not blocking them. That was the last I saw anyways.

[Svartalf]

This is where the fun starts. Linus has refused to push those changes into the tree himself, and he is violently opposed to having developers dictate how Linux will be used, but as long as someone else (eg a major distro) picks up the changes first he is not blocking them. That was the last I saw anyways.

The biggest question then will be: "Who will be the distro that does it and ends up on the short end of the stick?"

That's one of those things that can mar your rep, much like the Novell-Microsoft deal has done to Novell's rep.

[ickusslime]

Binary blobs --will-- be locked out of the kernel sooner or later.

That is the problem. You will kill the goose that lays the golden egg. Most people don't have a problem with proprietary drivers as long as they work and work reliably.

As soon as "they" lock out modules from the kernel the software isn't free as in freedom anymore. Someone else is dictating how I can use the software; end of story. At that point it becomes a fiefdom no better than the people they are "fighting", despite what Stalin... I mean Stallman says.

I don't understand the F/OSS community anymore. They are just as bad as the proprietary companies. There is no middle ground anymore. It's all me me me...
If you start complaining about not being able to use the hardware that you "paid" for then you didn't research the hardware you bought or even read the box. I don't buy Brillo pads and then complain they scratch my bath tub when i clean the tub with them.

[Jimmy]

Not Linus. He already said he won't have any part of that.

Good on him for being grounded in the REAL world and not the IDEAL world.

Sure, it would be nice if all software everywhere were free and open. However that's not the world we live in. The idealist zealots would have me and everyone else chuck anything that isn't 100% FLOSS and blessed by RMS as holy and pure. They're looking for ways to restrict me from running software of my choosing. Because it's FLOSS that's ok.. but if Microsoft wants to restrict me to only running software which requires Microsoft software... that's EVIL OMFG MAKE IT STOP.

This notion that I should be able to run ONLY FLOSS software is a divisive waste of time. If you want people to use FOSS software, make FOSS software better. Don't try to cock block other software that works better. Compete with quality and feature completeness or you are no better than Microsoft. Competing by making sure no other software runs is one of the things Microsoft has done to piss FLOSS folks off so much. Yet that's what they want to do now ?