DJA wrote:
There's never going to be complete openness in hardware.
Hogwash.
That's not an unusual situation. For instance, WiFi chipsets are in the
same category. AFAIK, there is only one WiFi card with an "open" driver
and it's considered a fairly crappy and outdated chipset. Intel's
IPW2200BG WiFi chipset is at the top of the works-in-linux list and it's
closed (also triggering the kernel's "driver is tainted" warning). Intel
contributes to the development of a wrapper driver which talks to the
closed (firmware) portion of the driver.
The wireless drivers are closed *by law*. In order to get FCC
certification, your card cannot be used outside of compliance
specification. Closed firmware ensures that.
The big problem is that the center frequency is generally produced by
some form of frac-N PLL. The multipliers on those PLL's are set by
software. If I could set those multipliers, I could actually run on
channels below and above 1-11. Hooray! No more interference from the
neighbors. Of course, I stomp all over whoever has the allocations
above and below the 802.11 bands.
The graphics card makers are under no such restriction. They keep
things closed primarily to avoid patent litigation as well as a few
misrepresentation lawsuits (graphics drivers are notorious for bogus
"optimizations").
I think this whole "Boo! on hardware makers who, in highly competitive
markets, don't open source their drivers" to be a bunch of unrealistic
pie-in-the-sky nit picking.
No, it's not. The open source world is headed for a showdown over
hardware just like it went through about software. The combination of
Linux and GNU broke through the closed software problem. We have yet
to break through the closed hardware problem.
There is a reason why the open source folks are fighting things like
DRM, the broadcast flag, and hardware security chips as well as the laws
that make them enforceable.
The "open source graphics card" went nowhere. Main reason: the people
doing it didn't understand hardware. Producing a basic card that had
RAM, a RAMDAC, a DVI interface and a PCI interface would have been
enough. After that, the "bazaar" type model would have created the 3D
acceleration. However, everybody wanted to do the "cool, shiny" 3D
stuff instead of the "hard, boring, essential" hardware bits. Result:
flameout.
Of course, nobody wanted to *buy* that card either. "Well, it sucks."
was the response. So did Linux version 1.X.
The whole world doesn't need to be open
source.
No, but we need at least *one* credible open source alternative for
every piece of hardware. Then people can vote with their dollars.
Granted, there probably isn't a whole lot of trade secret stuff
in their hardware, but you can't blame them for trying to protect what
little there is, given the short life cycles of some computer hardware
(video chips being the most prominent example).
As I said, that is more about litigation than secrets.
In addition, that short lifecycle is *part of the problem*. I am fairly
happy developing on a Radeon 9200 equivalent which *does* have open
source drivers. Unfortunately, I can't *buy* a Radeon 9200 in a laptop
form factor anymore. Oops.
Plus, I'm afraid "tainted" doesn't mean what you may think it means:
it's a warning Linus added to the kernel indicating that the driver is
not open source. Period. It doesn't mean it's corrupt or broken. As for
nVidia's drivers having some problems in Linux - so do ATI's (also
partially closed) drivers. In fact, most video drivers have problems.
Linux or Windows. But ATI and nVidia are the only options if you want to
play 3D games. If you don't, don't use cards designed /specifically/ for
3D games playing. Not all hardware works under all circumstances for
all applications. Nvidia's included.
Correct. If I want to play games, I run Windows. Just so you realize
that same argument implies that you shouldn't use Linux for games.
BTW, I think it's a bit inconsistent to chide nVidia for supplying a
closed source driver for Linux while at the same time recommending Apple
which is also uses some closed source drivers - including nVidia's.
Ummm, he's recommending the *hardware*. Not OS X. And you will note
that he recommended the Intel graphics which is claimed to have an open
source driver.
-a
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