> Sent: Fri, 04 Oct 2002 07:29:19 +0530 > Received: Thu, 03 Oct 2002 23:33:34 +0530
Any reason you set your clock 8 hrs ahead of the rest of us? > The correct usage is Xwindow (X Window System) , not Xwindows. You are better off with the term XFree86 in the context, because there are other X Servers like Xi Graphics' for which support may be included with the hardware, but still it is of no use to you as you don't use Xi's X Server. Now the question of having a binary only module support for a device from a vendor. This issue has caused a lot of frustration to kernel hackers themselves. A quote from Alan Cox. Alan Cox: "Unfortunately I get so many bug reports caused by the nvidia modules and people lying when asked if they have them loaded that some kind of action has to occur, otherwise I'm going to have to stop reading bug reports from anyone I don't know personally" And some kind of action did occur and they introduced the "tainted" flag for modules. The frustrations and formulation of the solution has caused a lot of time being wasted, which would otherwise have gone to writing useful code. The topic is still hot and is being discussed to extent that the allowance of binary only modules in the kernel by Torvalds may constitute a violation of the GPL terms. So if you are satisfied with binary only modules support for Linux for your new hardware, it is NOT in the spirit of open software and is actually AGAINST it. > I agree with you, but there is a practical problem. > Suppose I bought advice, which cannot be configured NOW in GNU/Linux , it > is useless to me . Why should I buy it ? You mean 'a device', not 'advice'? right? If the vendor is willing to release documentation, they will see to it that it is available to the developers much earlier than the product hit the end user market. An an end user this is not about a single OS support, but rather about fostering of open standards and spec. If every graphic card vendor had their own idea about graphic API, then it would be a mess. Right now the authority about the API that graphic card vendors recognize is Microsoft with their DirectX 9. Every vendor are now trying to implement hardware support for DirectX 9 on their cards. Unni.
