DJA wrote:
Andrew Lentvorski wrote:
DJA wrote:
There's never going to be complete openness in hardware.
Hogwash.
You call that a rebuttal? :)
Sure. Just not a good one. ;)
The why is really not important in this context. People bitch about
closed source 3D video card drivers. They don't bitch about closed
source WiFi drivers. The majority that bitch don't do so because they
can't write code for them, but because...well, it's fashionable.
Actually, OpenBSD does. Repeatedly.
Their bitching actually got a couple of open source drivers apparently:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Open_Source_Wireless_Drivers
ral/ural Ralink rt2500/rt2600 OpenBSD Yes BSD
Documentation-based Yes
rtw Realtek RTL8180L NetBSD, OpenBSD N/A BSD
Documentation-based Yes
[edit]
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.
Yes it is. My prognostications are just a likely as yours. There's
always going to be new hardware. It's not always going to be open
source. Not unless and until there is a massive paradigm shift in the
Human condition. And as long as we're throwing conspiracy theories
about, I don't see that shift happening in this country as long as more
people vote for third-rate reality TV contestants than vote in national
elections.
You are correct. It is prognostication.
The showdown does not have to occur in this country for this country to
benefit. This showdown *is* happening. China, for example, has
embarked on a major effort to engineer all the parts of computers natively.
In addition, the showdown is coming because of end-of-life issues. We
are just starting to hit the point where people actually want to keep
their computer equipment more than 3 years. Primarily government, for
the moment, but the grumbling is getting louder. The best way to
overcome this issue is a stable, documented API for your hardware. At
that point, you can even reconstruct a workalike for the old hardware if
required.
Ummm, last time I checked, video cards are hardware, and unless I'm
mistaken, Macs still use video cards - which require drivers. Unless
you're implying that nVidia (or ATI) supply open source drivers for
Macs?
His claim was that *Intel* did supply open source drivers for *Intel*
graphics cards on the OS X machines. Several of the OS X machines
apparently use Intel chips for graphics.
Please go back and reread his message, but I'm pretty sure I got that
implication correct.
-a
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