-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
B.Weber@warwick.ac.uk wrote:
AFAIK nvidia's driver doesn't violate the GPL because they use a GPLed shim, this doesn't mean it's morally right though.
With that reasoning, every software license would be meaningless. ... Speaking as a private individual (not for any employer) and kernel developer, I hope somebody has the time and money to sue certain GPL violators. Suing works well for userspace programs and embedded devices (see http://gpl-violations.org/ for details), so why not for certain kernel modules, too?
That money would better be invested into writing a reverse engineered 3D capable driver for nVidia GPUs. What's next, sue the "mad" project ?
I admit that for a few persons the eradication of closed source kernel modules may be somewhat unpleasant, but in the longer term it is the only feasible way. The unavailability of said modules will make people more willing to test reverse engineered drivers, leading to greater driver quality overall.
"unpleasant" is not the right word. Where are the reverse engineered drivers for nVidia ? Where is a capable graphics card with 100% GPL drivers ? Not nvidia, not ati, not intel, so ... ? I'm not whining, just pointing you to the current situation as far as hardware accelerated 3D GPUs are concerned on Linux. Is there any good 3D GPU that has a 100% GPL driver ? Is there any WLAN chipset that you can buy today and that has a 100% GPL driver ? (well, there is, the one that has been dropped from 10.1) I totally understand your point, but it's also about being somewhat realistic. The fact that obviously you nor any other kernel developer needs or uses a hardware accelerated 3D GPU is one thing, but not letting people live with a far from perfect but functional situation is another. Freedom and GPL are invaluable, but bigotry doesn't help anyone. Would it be so bad to have a repository hosted outside of novell.com/opensuse.org that ships nVidia's driver as an RPM instead of having people go through compiling it themselves ? Certainly would be a big help for a lot of users. Yes, we can currently use nVidia's repository for SLED, but that is just a "by chance" side-effect, there is no guarantee whatsoever that we will still have that option in a near future. cheers - -- -o) Pascal Bleser http://linux01.gwdg.de/~pbleser/ /\\ <pascal.bleser@skynet.be> <guru@unixtech.be> _\_v The more things change, the more they stay insane. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFE/KKfr3NMWliFcXcRAkyaAKCDofuhVO3o7zIv/1445lAH+ovgXACbBbqx /caGNxYd3M4iXA14tiYG724= =GGmO -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org