> >I think that everyone in the list should sing the petition and I > >think that this e-mail should be posted in debian-user and other > >linux distributions and user groups lists. This must be signed by > >every linux user, because linux is a multiplatform system and > >everyone (Nvidia included) should understand this.
As desperate as I am for a featureful nVidia driver for my PB12", I haven't yet signed the petition because I don't quite agree with it. The first thing I took issue with was "we have to stick with much feature-less opensource-drivers". I think we all know that the issue is not that these drivers are "opensource" -- the problem is that they're based on a more-or-less blind reverse-engineering of the chip, without any assistance from nVidia. I have trouble signing a petition that implies that we -- especially Debian users, lord knows -- would prefer a binary driver to one that has source under GPL or some other Free license. I don't like binary-only drivers. I use Debian because I am fiercely dedicated to Free Software. If nVidia released binary drivers for PPC, I might be tempted to use them; and the more people who used them, the more it would delay the development of a complete, fast Free driver that would work on platforms beyond PPC and x86. If we're going to get other GNU/Linux user lists involved, we should be banding together to exert more pressure on nVidia to release specs to Free Software developers. A binary-only solution is a worse solution than what we have now. This goes double, of course, for Broadcom's 802.11x chips (it occured to me last night that I might have to get one of those Wi-Fi 'adapters' that plug into my ethernet port if I ever want to use wireless on my Powerbook: how degrading!) O.
