Ian Hilliard <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> Hadron wrote:
>
>> Ian Hilliard <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>>
>>>>
>>>
> http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?p=89130&sid=468f88443356e877b98045f6e281780c
>>>>
>>>
>>> Many OSS developers believe that by not making it easy to use the CSS
>>> drivers this will force the producers of these drivers to change their
>>
>> Yes. The kind that were a hindrance to Linux adoption for years. The
>> Mark Kents of this world.
>>
>>> ways. I personally believe that the producers of these drivers won't
>>> change their ways until there is an economic imperative. The opening of
>>> the ATI hardware spec may just be the necessary catalyst.
>>
>> They are not going to give their code away. And why should they?
>>
>>>
>>> Ian
>>
>
> Maybe they should give their hardware spec away, as ATI have done. The FOSS
> developers will do the rest.
>
It's precisely what has happened with pretty much every other kind of
hardware. The idea that the binary driver is somehow special is
terribly 1990s; nVidia sell cards, they do not sell drivers. They do
not make money on the drivers. They *lose* money on the drivers. They
employ people to write drivers for which the company *does not get
paid*.
The advantages to using an open-source driver are manifold, including
massively reducing the support costs for writing drivers, and then
having 3rd-party developers produce drivers for multiple hardware-stacks
and operating systems, thus resulting in _increased sales_ of the
hardware. The hardware being the piece nVidia make money from.
It's not complicated, is it? Don't do the bit which loses money, but do
the bit which makes it. Don't stop the free thing which results in
greater sales.
nVidia's specs will be out soon, I expect, because the ATI ones are
already. You know what, the sky hasn't fallen in yet...
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
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