From: Christian Unger <chakkerz@optusnet.com.au>
Reply-To: chakkerz@optusnet.com.au
Organization: naiv.sourceforge.net
To: Timothy Miller <miller@techsource.com>
Subject: Re: [OT] Crazy idea:  Design open-source graphics chip
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004 12:11:05 +1100
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> No more being at the mercy of closed-development graphics chip designers
> who make Linux an after-though if they even think of us at all.

I don't know if we are at the mercy of closed-development code. In a way you 
are always at the mercy of someone. Say there was an open driver development 
push for an open GPU, someone would still have to code for it. Someone would 
make decisions and someone would disagree. 

We would in effect be at the mercy of those. We are at the mercy of the kernel 
coders as we speak. Decisions could be made that affect you and me, right 
now. Suddenly it might be decided that AC97 is useless and support will not 
be continued. Unlikely but it could happen. So then what? I don't think i 
could just jump in and code that. Certainly there are people that could, but 
what if those patches were to be ignored? Forked?

Oh ... don't get me wrong, i think that the conceptual idea is awesome. 
Personally, i wouldn't know where to begin, but can the open source community 
compete with Nvidia and ATI? afterall this goes beyond software, it delves 
into hardware. Sure there are people with the knowledge, maybe even with the 
means, but i doubt the financial backing would be there from the get go. 

But hey. I hope i'm wrong and open hardware is the next big thing. One request 
though. Make the cooler quiet please :)

... One afterthought on the mercy bit. I had issues with NVidia's 5328 drivers 
on 2.6 ... it was frustrating and all, but if i thought the path of least 
resistance i doubt i'd be running Linux. Then again... I quit running Windows 
because i couldn't take it anymore.

-- 
with kind regards,
  Christian Unger

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