Rich Teer wrote: > On Tue, 17 Oct 2006, Alan Coopersmith wrote: > > >> stopped doing so. Xorg is the direction the X server group is following, >> and while we wish the SPARC graphics group would provide drivers for Xorg >> soon, cannot compel them to do so. One of our team members has started >> looking at bringing up Xorg on SPARC with the opensource ATI radeon driver >> and the XVR-100 card, so if that is successful, we may be able to proceed >> without the help of the SPARC graphics team. >> > > I know this probably involves a lot of internal politics that you can't > (or don't want to) go into, but I think that it's a real shame the the > SPARC graphics team doesn't seem to want to play ball. The X server > group may not be able to cajule the SPARC side of the house to open > their drivers (incidentally, one wonders why there are more than one > graphics team anyway...), but surely someone up the management ladder > can? Perhaps Stephen Harpster? > >
I hate to say this so publicly, but I think it needs to be said. >From what I've seen so far (and I've had some private conversations with them), the remaining people in the SPARC graphics group are far, far more interesting in protecting their own jobs than in doing anything that is helpful to the rest of Sun, the community, or Solaris. I can't go into detail, but I think unless Sun fixes this problem, ultimately it will cost Sun millions of dollars in future Solaris/SPARC revenue. In my mind the question is not whether the cost will be millions, but 10s of millions or 100s of millions, of future revenue lost. Frankly, at this point, I think Sun should just get rid of the few remaining members of the SPARC graphics group, and hand over the sources to the X server team, where ultimately it may be possible for them to get open-sourced. (Or at least portions of them.) -- Garrett D'Amore, Principal Software Engineer Tadpole Computer / Computing Technologies Division, General Dynamics C4 Systems http://www.tadpolecomputer.com/ Phone: 951 325-2134 Fax: 951 325-2191
