Kernel Developers Say No To Binary Blobs

[Vadi]

I wonder how many end users actually manage to get to the kernels bugtracker and file a bug.

[oblivious_maximus]

Probably not many, but I think it's more a question in this case of the percentage of the people who do file bug reports on the kernel while using Nvidia(or ATI, or $BLOB-LOVING-WIRELESS-CO) hardware and run the requisite blob along with it.

The benefit to end users, though surely not the goal of this letter or similar appeals, is that some bugs that NVIDIA(or whoever) fails to fix themselves for whatever reason (there are plenty to go around in NVIDIA's case), just may get fixed by a kernel developer who's trying to get the kernel to work better. And then even NVIDIA benefits. Of course this ignores the fact that NVIDIA would never just release the source code to their current driver, for much the same reason AMD didn't just release the source to fglrx.

Anyhow, I dislike companies that lie so well as much as I dislike running neverendingly-buggy blobs.

[Vadi]

Well, the Chinese already have managed to copy cars, trains and fighter jets. If they fake nvidia cards, having an open-source driver for them to use would be really detrimental to nvidia

[lenrek]

Well, the Chinese already have managed to copy cars, trains and fighter jets. If they fake nvidia cards, having an open-source driver for them to use would be really detrimental to nvidia

For faking Nvidia cards? Very unlikely.

If such situation is indeed economically viable, then we should be seeing a lot of fake Intel graphics in the market by now.

[Jade]

Well, the Chinese already have managed to copy cars, trains and fighter jets....

Well, the AMERICANS already have managed to copy cars (from the French (Nicolas Cugnot) and the British steam-powered stagecoaches), trains (from the German Wagonways and the British (Richard Trevithick)) and fighter jets (from the British and the Germans (Hans von Ohain and Sir Frank Whittle)).....

[Vadi]

Er, nVidia are americans, no?

[Jade]

Er, nVidia are americans, no?

Yeah, but that wasn't really the point being made.

[Ex-Cyber]

If someone managed to clone an nVidia GPU (which seems unlikely; the handful of foundries that could manufacture them almost certainly have better things to do), the nVidia drivers would work as-is. If they used some other GPU design as a basis for a counterfeit "nVidia" GPU, they would need a driver for that other design. What use would they have for an open-source nVidia driver?

[Vadi]

Easier adaption of the driver for that design?

The only "pro" argument for an open-source driver is that bugs would be fixed. But is this that much of an advantage? Will all bugs be fixed? As real-world examples show, no, oss software can be just as buggy (see ff3 javascript, my personal annoyance). Can the intellectual property be stolen / used for own commercial purposes? Sure. I guess nvidia just don't see the scale tipping into the open-source side all that much.

Which personally isn't a bother; I'm glad that as a consumer I got a piece of the nice drivers they made for the movie industry

[deanjo]

As real-world examples show, no, oss software can be just as buggy (see ff3 javascript, my personal annoyance).

Not to mention things like wlan cards......

/glares at Ralink