Nvidia proprietary drivers vs. Fedora xorg packages

[john wendel]

On 08/16/2010 10:17 AM, Mikkel wrote:
> On 08/16/2010 07:38 AM, Marko Vojinovic wrote:
>> On Monday, August 16, 2010 05:03:54 Tim wrote:
>>> On Sun, 2010-08-15 at 17:12 -0700, Jonathan Ryshpan wrote:
>>>> I fear that there are technical reasons why Nvidia is releasing files
>>>> with conflicting names.
>>>
>>> Considering that others have repackaged the same drivers, so they
>>> install without stuffing up the original system files, the answer would
>>> probably be that there is no good reason, just laziness on their behalf.
>>>
>>> If they're making the drivers, they can make it ask for files with
>>> different file paths, or file names, and leave the original ones alone.
>>
>> The nVidia folks do not package the drivers just for Fedora, but are instead
>> trying to cover all Linux flavors with one single automated .bin install
>> script. My guess is that conflicting file names exist across various distros,
>> and that it is impossible to package the blob installation for all of them
>> simultaneously, without overwriting some system files (on some distros at
>> least).
>>
>> Rpmfusion folks take the whole thing apart and customize it for Fedora
>> specifically. My guess is that, say, akmod from rpmfusion would break horribly
>> if one tries to install it to OpenSuSE or some other rpm-based Linux flavor.
>>
>> It is already fortunate that nVidia folks are providing the .bin that can
>> actually be repackaged by third parties to fit a particular distro. Asking for
>> more might be too much, IMHO.
>>
>> Best, :-)
>> Marko
>>
> Considering the the location of the Xorg files is fairly standard
> across distributions, and just about every one uses Xorg to provide
> X, that argument doesn't hold water. There is even a standard plact
> to put their files where they will not stomp on Xorg, no matter
> where it is located. That is what the /opt directory tree is fore.
>
> Mikkel
>

I should just keep quiet, but anyhow ...

I just installed the latest evil Nvidia driver, which works great on my 
F11 box, and nothing is broken. I just did 'ls -ltr' in all the /usr 
directories, and I don't see anything "stomped" on except for some 
include files. All the files installed by the Nvidia installer (except 
the include files) have "nvidia" and/or a version number in their name.
Nvidia replaces libGL (and friends), but the files are properly 
versioned, and the original files are still there.

I really don't understand the "problem". Is it practical or philosophical?

Regards,

John