Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Fri, 3 Jan 2003 09:37:57 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Fri, 3 Jan 2003 09:37:57 -0500 Received: from otter.mbay.net ([206.55.237.2]:21510 "EHLO otter.mbay.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Fri, 3 Jan 2003 09:37:56 -0500 Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2003 06:46:23 -0800 (PST) From: John Alvord To: Helge Hafting cc: Andrew Walrond , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Why is Nvidia given GPL'd code to use in closed source drivers? In-Reply-To: <3E159336.F249C2A1@aitel.hist.no> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2984 Lines: 70 On Fri, 3 Jan 2003, Helge Hafting wrote: > Andrew Walrond wrote: > > > > Yes but.... > > > > I develop computer games. The last one I did took a team of 35 people 2 > > years and cost $X million to develop. > > > > Please explain how I could do this as free software, while still feeding > > my people? > > > Am I a bad person charging for my work? > No. > > > > Really - I want to understand so I too can join this merry band of happy > > people giving everything away for free! > > > Nobody give everything away from free. Free software, in particular, > runs > on boxes that cost money. And people sell service and support. > > The problem with nvidia isn't that they charge money. The problem > is that their product comes with strange restrictions. > > Everybody accepts that a nvidia cards cost money - chips and boards > certainly aren't free. They even provide drivers for their card > for free. They can trivially do this because they make their > money on selling the hardware. > > The problems are: > 1) The drivers are closed-source, so we can't fix the bugs. (Yes, > there are bugs, and no, nvidia don't fix them immediately. So > it'd be nice for us who understand C to fix this ourselves. > Releasing the code don't won't cost nvidia because they aren't > making money on it. They might actually sell _more_ hardware > if they released the code. So keeping it secret don't make sense > even from a extreme greediness viewpoint. Such a driver can't > be made to work with a competing product either with a few tweaks. > > 2) Still, they _may_ have reasons not to release the code, perhaps > a patended algorithm or some such. They could at least release the > specs for their card, so a free driver could be written from scratch. > But they don't do that either - strange. Some manufacturers _do_ > this, with no ill effects. They get a slightly bigger market because > their equipment is ok with the free software world. Another possibility is that they used some propriatary software libraries which have restrictions. Didn't someone see some strings which suggested that? > > This is very much like selling cars were the gas tank is locked, and > you don't have the key. The gas stations have keys, but only > some of them. So you can't fill anywhere. > Or a tv that don't work on thursdays. Silly in the extreme, > annoying for the user and no benefit for the manufacturer. > > Helge Hafting > - > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org > More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html > Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/ > - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/