radeon driver heading in wrong direction :-(.

[Bill Davidsen]

Kevin Kofler wrote:
> Marko Vojinovic wrote:
>> AFAIK, nVidia is locked up in closed source licences and non-disclosure
>> agreements, and that is the only reason why they don't provide specs and
>> open source drivers. It appears nVidia has good will, but legal issues are
>> a showstopper.
> 
> That's bullshit. There are repeated public statements from NVidia that they 
> don't see any market or demand for "open source" (Free Software) drivers and 
> that therefore they don't care. Don't delude yourself!
> 
You have totally confused supporting the Linux market with Open Source. The fact 
that you have taken an oath of whatever the software equivalent of celibacy is, 
and refuse to use anything you can't compile yourself is religion, not finance, 
and frankly many users have chosen the closed source working drivers to Open 
Source drivers which don't.

NV does not feel that in the Linux market they would make more money, sell more 
hardware, with Open Source drivers than they do with the drivers they provide. 
They feel that the closed source drivers suffice, and they provide those. To 
claim that any support other than doing things your way "doesn't count" doesn't 
really contribute to user satisfaction.

>> And the fact that they provide support next to none (of their closed
>> source drivers) demonstrates that they *do* care about Linux market, and
>> do take the community support seriously.
> 
> I disagree. Providing proprietary drivers is NOT providing support to Free 
> Software or GNU/Linux. (In fact it's worse than doing nothing because some 
> people who would otherwise help the Nouveau project are content with using 
> the proprietary crap.)
> 
Supporting Open Source is not the same thing as supporting Linux users. They are 
different approaches to selling hardware.

-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot