Hi Zoltan, On Fri, May 16, 2008 at 9:46 PM, Zoltán <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > you forget one particular piece of open-source stuff, or > more specifically Linux stuff: proprietary drivers and > GPL !!!
I believe I left lots of details out.... even choice of OS :-) Linux is the one I'm most familiar with though... so if one did go with Linux one would have to look at the OpenGL driver situation. > I've also read about a LiveCD distribution that provided 3D > proprietary drivers out of the box for most hardware and > that the GNU people attacked, and obliged to retract. That > was because a distribution doesn't have the right to > provide closed-source drivers in a GNU environment, and it > is only possible if it is the user's *OWN PERSONAL* choice > outside the GNU framework to do so. (I hope you understand > what I try to explain, I'm no specialist in the area) I suspect the mixing of binary drivers with the linux kernel needs to be taken to court to get sorted out for once and for all. I find it pretty odd that its claimed by some not to be legal to distribute non GPL'd drivers together with a GPL'd kernel, yet after installing a GPL'd kernel then patching it with non GPL'd drivers is OK. I guess perhaps an interpretation of this situtation is that the copying/distribution of binary of the patched kernel that is not permitted, but if its compiled and ran locally then its not copying. I wouldn't have thought personal choice has anything to do with it being legal or not, its the act of distribution that part that will be covered by Copyright/GPL. Automating this kernel module recompile is some thing one could do on install I guess... as this would avoid the strict binary distribution of a patched kernel. However, the ideal is that open source drivers will match the quality of the proprietary drivers in the near future, this will clear up any ambiguities, it'll also give use middleware/app developers a chance to fix bugs that creep into drivers. I'd guess there are plenty of people on this list capable of digging into an OpenGL driver and groking how it worked, I already know that some did just this in a previous life... Robert. _______________________________________________ osg-users mailing list osg-users@lists.openscenegraph.org http://lists.openscenegraph.org/listinfo.cgi/osg-users-openscenegraph.org
