On Monday September 30 2002 10:11 pm, Lyvim Xaphir wrote:
> On Fri, 2002-09-27 at 19:36, Tom Brinkman wrote:
> > I have no idea what's meant by that "'regular' Mandrake kernel"
> > message complaint. BUT it's a good idea to compile a sacrifice
> > kernel to taint with closed source proprietary crap like nVidia
> > provides. IOW's compile a pure 'k7' kernel, and then repeat usin
> > EXTRAVERSION = to make an identical 'k7nvidia' kernel. Only apply
> > the nVidia closed source taints to the latter. There's no tell'n
> > what their binaries do to an otherwise good kernel. A recent
> > Mandrake developer reported that extensive testing with nVidia
> > tainted kernels showed they can even cause file system corruption
> > ... among all the other untraceable problems.
>
> Which developer was it? Have you got an email address or a URL to
> the report?
>
Civileme, July 10th, 2002 on this list, see below. BTW, the XFree86
nv driver just recently does support 3d/accel.
> I've got Nvidia drivers and I have as yet seen no anomalies. I would
> be interested in seeing the developer's report on this or emailing
> him to get further information on this.
>
> LX
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=mandrake-newbie&m=102633257532555&w=2
"Well, I have treasured Voodoo cards for my 3D. I surplus old test
machines with other cards installed and hold the 3dfx. NVIdia drivers
_are_ unstable and have been known to cause filesystem corruption. Yes,
I have tested this, extensively. Only the XFree drivers, which do not
provide 3D accel, seem to work all the time. Incidentally, NVidia
cannot make their drivers open-source because there were others involved
in the development, notably SGI and Microsoft, and NVidia's huge success
is due largely to their "special relationship with Microsoft" vis-a-vis
the XBox. So they are simply a fiefdom on the edge of empire, and
probably feel at times like a flea on an elephant's back.
With all the prizes awarded for proof-of-concept spyware, how long do
you think binary-only drivers will be trustable? There is money to be
made by including it for the benefit of merchants and their marketing
studies, so "what you don't know" CAN and WILL hurt you.
Yes, Aureal did say they would make the drivers open-source; however,
they were swept away by the land-mines of ridiculous fashion patents
before they had a chance to. The "winners" out there aren't the folks
who were technically best; they're the ones who marketed more
aggressively and had a better corps of lawyers and had big friends, and
who were willing to stoop lower in agressive business chicanery. 3dfx
and Nvoidia were once on a par, with maybe a slight techniccal edge to
3dfx, but then along came the XBox, which Nvidia won as the hardware
supplier, and their stock skyrocketed. One of their first acts was to
buy out and shut down 3dfx (whose drivers were open-source).
Well there are linux companies out there who use significant closed
source, and some of them banded together to make United Linux in a bid
to stay alive in a very very bad computing market. I would say that you
can expect to see Debian survive. For everyone else in linux, it is
highly questionable, even for the closed source, per-seat licensing
types, and perhaps especially for them since none of them seem able to
keep a significant share of the user market as opposed to the
business-user market.
But, make no mistake, the issue is open versus closed source. On 5% of
the market and a whole lot less than 5% of the money, linux has made a
world-class Op system that makes Windows look sick. The issue is
keeping the computer you paid for belonging to you, and if you use
closed source that ownership comes into question immediately.
Civileme"
--
Tom Brinkman Corpus Christi, Texas
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft?
Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
