Kernel Developers Work To Block NVIDIA "GPL Condom" Effort Around New NetGPU Code

[GruenSein]

How, do you think, did AMD solve that?

By putting in years of work, some rewrites of otherwise proprietary stuff, rewrites to conform with Linux coding standards, and just lots and lots of patience.

[cl333r]

Granting the supposition that NVidia cannot release FL/OSS drivers without revealing trade secrets (which I would not, but for the sake of argument), what is the "right way" to do this?

Trade secrets my ass, look at AMD and Intel.

[King InuYasha]

I don't know. AFAIK there is still a closed source AMD driver and an open source one.

AMD does not have a proprietary closed-source driver. AFAICT, AMDGPU Pro is an additional pure-userspace binary blob to add optimized OpenGL, OpenCL, and Vulkan code paths. It's completely optional, and everything works just fine without it.

[entropy]

AMD does not have a proprietary closed-source driver. AFAICT, AMDGPU Pro is an additional pure-userspace binary blob to add optimized OpenGL, OpenCL, and Vulkan code paths. It's completely optional, and everything works just fine without it.

^ This.

[Xaero_Vincent]

A bit confused. So what is the end result of this?

Nvidia will have a more difficult time releasing their proprietary Nvidia driver for new kernels?

[k1e0x]

Facebook and Nvidia could just use their existing proprietary driver in FreeBSD and give the middle finger back. lol

[Almindor]

So.. conform or die? Nope, not viral at all.

If enforcing their own rules set forth ages ago is viral then all companies and licenses are viral I guess...

It takes some serious mental gymnastics to pretend this is some sort of copyleft overreach. You should go back to 1998 and join the M$ FUD team.

[k1e0x]

If enforcing their own rules set forth ages ago is viral then all companies and licenses are viral I guess...

It takes some serious mental gymnastics to pretend this is some sort of copyleft overreach. You should go back to 1998 and join the M$ FUD team.

Sorry man, I just don't feel open source should have a whole bunch of restrictions attached to it. How is that free? Maybe you should join the M$ team if you like forcing people to do stuff.

[Guest]

How, do you think, did AMD solve that?

And Intel. They've written drivers well in advance, and even released nice GPU docs. There's no good reason for NVIDIA's secrecy, they just want control.

[gururise]

Perhaps Nvidia should just stop updating their Linux driver.