On Sun, 9 Jul 2006 15:10:21 -0400
"Timothy Miller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Long Description
>
> I started the Open Graphics Project in 2004 after being frustrated by
> the lack of documentation and support by graphics card vendors for
> Free Software. In the 1990's there were many graphics chip vendors,
> and some of them were willing to supply Free Software developers
> instructions and specifications they would need to write drivers.
> Today, there are only a handful of remaining graphics card vendors,
> and for various reasons, they have chosen to close up more and more of
> their documentation, making it difficult or impossible to develop Free
> Software drivers. While their closed-source drivers have matured to a
> point where many users find them to work very well, some users still
> experience stability problems that are impossible to debug with a
> tainted kernel. For a large population of Linux users, the primary
> problem is an ideological one: Many Free Software enthusiasts find it
IMHO it's more a practical thing than an idiological thing.
Most people i know, do not care that much whether something
is FSF-free or not, but whether it works in all cases or not.
And unfortunately, CSS drivers do only work in the most common
cases. For all others, there is nobody that cares (costs to much
money for little gain) and nobody who could fix it (no source).
One of such uncommon cases is something a friend told me yesterday:
he has an nvidia card with css driver in his desktop. He wanted to
use software suspend, but the nvidia driver bitches about it and
the suspend fails. Same driver works on his notebook though.
> unacceptable to run any sort of non-Free software on their computers,
> especially inside of the Linux kernel. With many older, supported
> cards reaching end-of-life, it is becoming increasingly difficult to
> graphics cards supported by Free Software.
A verb is missing here.
> I haven't worked out everything I want to say, but below is an
> overview of some of the topics I'd like to cover in a talk. Please
> feel free to make suggestions and ask for changes.
>
> o The problem and the need
> o Why open source drivers are important
> o Why closed-source drivers are bad
> o Limitations of many open source drivers
> o Ideology
> o Debugging
> o Stability
> o Kernel upgrades
> o IP issues (distro packaging)
>
> o OGP, our goals, and our ideals
> o Who we are and our skills
> o Fully-documented hardware
> o Open Source drivers (GPL, BSD, MIT)
> o Open Source hardware! (GPL, in most cases)
GPL-Proprietary dual license
> o Full support for all graphics engine features
> o Support for any OS, architecture, or platform (MorphOS,
> PC, Alpha, *BSD, etc...)
That's a bit far reaching, because we cannot achieve this goal
ourselves.
> o IP licensing
This you have to explain very carefully. Licensing with gpl'ed
stuff will raise quite a few concernes.
> o Our strategy
> o Design graphics hardware for Linux *desktop* (not games)
> o Minimalist hardware design
> o OGA (graphics engine spec)
> o OGD1 (FPGA-based graphics card development platform)
> o Formation of Traversal Technology, LLC to handle business
> and expenses
I would put the last two after the next two points as one step to the
solution of these problems.
> o Viability of development model
> o Costs of hardware production
I would put these as problems of the strategy
> o Basic Feature Set
> o Quick intro to graphics system architecture
> o Rasterization layer of OpenGL 1.3
> o Transparency, compositing, texturing, image warping, 2D
> primitives, etc.
> o OGA specification based on community consensus
> o No programmable shaders, T&L done in software
> o Justifications for feature set elements
>
> o Our needs
> o Volunteers to help design hardware and write software
> o Legal counsel
> o Open Graphics Foundation (non-profit, handles donations,
> community votes, etc.)
>
> o Future
> o Get the basics done and become self-sustaining, then...
> o Start adding more modern 3D engine features like programmable
> shaders
> o Other open hardware, like high-end audio, networking, RAID, etc.
>
>
> What Attendees Will Learn
>
> About the efforts currently underway to develop hardware specifically
> with Free Software in mind. Our goals are to develop fully-documented
> and open source hardware. We have made significant progress since we
> first started and have met our first major milestone with the release
> of the OGD1 graphics card prototyping platform.
Will OGD1 be ready by then?
> I would like to cover
> topics that include graphics theory, graphics hardware, chip design in
> general, the community-developed specification for future Linux
> graphics needs (OGA), Free Software device drivers, features of OGD1,
> and intended features of graphics cards that will come afterward. The
> OGP has turned into a learning experience for many people who now see
> the OGP as an opportunity to learn hardware design, as well as help
> with the effort to take control of our fate with the formation of a
> hardware manufacturer who has Free Software as the number one
> priority.
IMHO the talk looks good. It's about what i would expect to hear
and some stuff (like economical problems) i wouldnt have thougt about
but would like to hear anyways.
HTH
Attila Kinali
--
心をこめて聞け心をこめて話せ
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