Actually, there are plenty of examples of competing hardware technologies where 
one of them emerged the victor simply because the licensing restrictions were 
slightly less dickish than those of the other. The famous Betamax versus VHS is 
a good example, but to be fair it should be said that there also were other 
factors in play, pardon the pun. Other good examples are UMD, MiniDisc, 
MemoryStick.

"Peter C. Ndikuwera" <[email protected]> wrote:

Simon, 

Genuine question: Are there real-world examples of hardware that died out 
because a new open-sourced alternative came out? I don't think NVIDIA's biggest 
competitor is the ATI/Intel/XXX open source driver. :-)

P.

--

Evolution (n): A hypothetical process whereby infinitely improbable events 
occur with alarming frequency, order arises from chaos, and no one is given 
credit.




On 8 August 2012 10:12, Simon Vass <[email protected]> wrote:

Peter,

It is a common story throughout the FOSS world. Does keeping something hidden 
ultimately protect your market position. Sure, until the next best thing comes 
along and serves you up for lunch because it's  and open source. Is Intel that 
creature, not without some radical R&D in GPU's, which is begining to happen. 
Or maybe there number 2 competitor making a serious effort to get their drivers 
in order.

I guess what I find so frustrating is that the recent Valve/Intel collaboration 
seems to have a) been fun and fruitful for all concerned b) Has developed a 
mutual relationship where us the customer and let us not forget them will 
benefit.

Maybe the next GPU will be an ARM one with a gazzillion cores and the power 
consumption of a led torch. Either way I think it's an exciting time in the 
Linux world.


Simon Vass
Managing Director
E-Tech Uganda Ltd

http://www.etech.ug
Tel: +256 (0) 312260620 or (0) 312260621
email: [email protected]
skype: e-techservicedesk


----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter C. Ndikuwera" <[email protected]>
To: "Uganda Linux User Group" <[email protected]>

Sent: Wednesday, 8 August, 2012 1:07:06 AM
Subject: Re: [LUG] John Carmack linux still not viable


True enough in _theory_ but apart from the core kernel (or the parts of the 
kernel that are sexy), I'm not so sure that this is true. I remember reading 
some stuff on lkml about the terrifyingly huge number of in-kernel drivers that 
are unmaintained and haven't been touched in aeons.

I understand the philosophical reasons for not wanting a binary blob (I'm a 
Linux power-user/semi-zealot after all) but I'm not convinced that NVIDIA gains 
anything from open sourcing their driver.

Sorting out legacy applications like the beast that is X/Xorg is probably a 
bigger issue for the Linux community than taking on the burden of maintaining 
an Open Source NVIDIA driver. Again, look at how terrible the ATI OSS driver is.

Another example, the Intel wireless driver (iwlwifi) can't do stable 
wireless-N. Yes, that's true. In 2012. Intel. One of the first big vendors to 
open-source their driver. One of the most used wireless card vendors in modern 
laptops can't do wireless-N. The advice on most forums:

1. echo "options iwlwifi 11n_disable=1" > /etc/modprobe.d/99-iwlwifi.conf
2. Reboot.

P.

--
Evolution (n): A hypothetical process whereby infinitely improbable events 
occur with alarming frequency, order arises from chaos, and no one is given 
credit.



On 8 August 2012 00:49, [email protected] < 
[email protected] > wrote:


...the two points with open source being that flaws are usually found and 
patched swifter, and if you find a hole yourself you are not at the mercy of a 
vendor to get it patched. Remember the GDI flaw?



"Peter C. Ndikuwera" < [email protected] > wrote:



Simon,

Are you saying back door exploits don't exist in open-source?

What about this infamous 64-bit kernel back door from 2010?

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/205867/linux_kernel_exploit_gives_hackers_a_back_door.html?tk=hp_new

And this is the KERNEL which has thousands and thousands of eyes looking at it.

Or if you want device driver based exploits, what about this one for VLAN 
be2net devices? be2net is the driver for the HP BladeServer's NIC. 
https://freecode.com/articles/ubuntu-new-linux-packages-fix-security-vulnerabilities-45
 . So, don't put NICs in our Blade Servers please!

Or this exploit, which affects Android? http://git.zx2c4.com/CVE-2012-0056/ . 
Guess we shouldn't put Linux on our phones and tablets.... Oh... wait...


<grin>

Peter



--
Evolution (n): A hypothetical process whereby infinitely improbable events 
occur with alarming frequency, order arises from chaos, and no one is given 
credit.



On 6 August 2012 18:51, Simon Vass < [email protected] > wrote:


Peter,

http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/NVIDIA-closes-hole-in-proprietary-Unix-driver-1660471.html

How about not installing a back door exploit on my PC. Good enough reason? ;-)






Simon Vass
Managing Director
E-Tech Uganda Ltd

http://www.etech.ug
Tel: +256 (0) 312260620 or (0) 312260621
email: [email protected]
skype: e-techservicedesk


----- Original Message -----

From: "Peter C. Ndikuwera" < [email protected] >
To: "Uganda Linux User Group" < [email protected] >


Sent: Sunday, 5 August, 2012 8:39:29 PM
Subject: Re: [LUG] John Carmack linux still not viable


Are OSS drivers really the problem/solution?

Intel has had open source drivers, but their cards are C.R.A.P. at 3D gaming.

ATI has open source drivers that aren't universally loved because the cards are 
good, but the drivers aren't. Even basic Compiz with an ATI card was a 
plug-and-"pray" until recently.

NVIDIA's binary blob may piss off Linus et al, yet they're by far the best 
performing cards in "desktop" Linux. They keep up with all the ABI breakages 
that kernel upgrades cause, release a decent tool, fully support X's extensions 
such as RandR, etc.

I don't think the Linux community has provided a good enough argument for 
NVIDIA to bother (or risk) open sourcing their driver.

P.


--
Evolution (n): A hypothetical process whereby infinitely improbable events 
occur with alarming frequency, order arises from chaos, and no one is given 
credit.



On 5 August 2012 10:10, Simon Vass < [email protected] > wrote:


http://www.ubuntuvibes.com/2012/08/john-carmack-linux-is-still-not-viable.html

Sad to see John and Id taking this route. I would rather he came out and said 
something like, well it has not been easy, but now Steam is committed we will 
redouble our efforts.

Also I think the key is to improve the level and quality of OSS drivers for 
Linux. Clearly truely oss drivers are much easier for everyone to improve, just 
need to convince AMD and Nvidia of that fully.

Simon Vass
Managing Director
E-Tech Uganda Ltd

http://www.etech.ug
Tel: +256 (0) 312260620 or (0) 312260621
email: [email protected]
skype: e-techservicedesk


----- Original Message -----
From: "Kyle Spencer" < [email protected] >
To: "Uganda Linux User Group" < [email protected] >
Sent: Friday, 3 August, 2012 5:50:33 AM
Subject: Re: [LUG] Gabe Newell on Linux, Windows 8, and open ecosystems




Here's a good follow up article about OpenGL vs. DirectX. Valve found 
Linux/OpenGL currently outperforms Windows/DirectX in terms of FPS.

http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/08/02/1738229/is-it-time-for-an-opengl-gaming-revolution

And here's a blog post by an Intel dev who took part in the recent Valve/Intel 
collaboration.

http://www.paranormal-entertainment.com/idr/blog/posts/2012-07-19T18%3A54%3A37Z-The_zombies_cometh/
On Jul 26, 2012 7:34 PM, "sanga collins" < [email protected] > wrote:


I never thought about that, but it is the TRUTH. As an avid gamer i guess ill 
have to stick with win7 for the next decade or so until some serious games show 
up on the linux version of steam


On Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 10:37 AM, Kyle Spencer < [email protected] > wrote:




Very interesting article where Gabe Newell talks about how damaging Windows 8 
could be for the PC market and why they (Valve) are persuing Linux and open 
ecosystems.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18996377
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