On Tuesday 28 February 2006 04:03, Siegbert Baude wrote:
jdd schrieb:
Azerion wrote:
Samsung, IBM and Others are allready preparing themselves for the new strategy of the kernel-developers. So don't complain before it all finished ;-)
If what you say is that the kernel devs action minds that most important hardware vendors decided to cope with open source standards, this a very good news... but is that true?
may be Linux has get so strong it can begins to rule...
With regard to the newest Intel wireless drivers, I doubt this. It is stated there (I can't judge, if it's true or not), that closed source modules are necessary to fulfill FCC rules. In a post on this list here, a Novell employee stated, that legal support for DVD playback can be achieved only by closed source drivers as the DVD commitee demands, that the driver doesn't allow any circumvention of the Macrovision mechanism.
So there is the real world and the kernel world. Who do you think will change its rules to fulfill the need of the users, who just want to use their systems? Multi billion dollar business or GPL (and even worse kernel policy) zeal^wsupporters? I don't dare to bet on any side.
The kernel devs have all rights to fight for their principles, they just shouldn't claim, that they are caring for the freedom of their users, when they just care about freedom of their software and with regard to stable driver APIs their freedom to change kernel interfaces with every minor version.
Ciao Siegbert
Ahh... the old "well we have to, so its ok" sentiment. I hate that sentiment. I find it... well, I don't think I want to say it. At what point does the inclusion of closed source with the kernel end? At what point do we, as consumers, say no? Sorry you think differently, but they *are* caring about the freedom of the users, not only the freedom of their software. MPEG, DVD (specifically CSS encryption), DRM, etc, now has HDCP to join the group, the biggest nightmare I will ever see. None of these HDCP compliant devices out there work correctly, and even better, do not work with each other at all. If you're going to buy something HDCP, be damn sure you're getting it all from the same company at the same time... you'll run into problems, still, but less than any other way. I mention this because its the same thing. CSS encryption is weak and uneccessary. Region encoding was done only so Hollywood could control their release cycle to milk movies for all that they've got. MPEG is not the end-all be-all of video codecs, plenty of others have come up with better codecs now. For example, the BBC with DIRAC, designed for HD. Or Ogg Theora. Why do we have DVD's with encryption? Because you, Siegbert, are ok with being forced into a certain path. Me? I'm not. Let the manufacturers do their job, and support me as a customer. They can put what needs to be closed somewhere in userspace, and open the rest. Short of that, I have no interest in using them. Joseph M. Gaffney aka CuCullin