Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1750920AbVKVFvA (ORCPT ); Tue, 22 Nov 2005 00:51:00 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1750925AbVKVFvA (ORCPT ); Tue, 22 Nov 2005 00:51:00 -0500 Received: from pentafluge.infradead.org ([213.146.154.40]:28613 "EHLO pentafluge.infradead.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750918AbVKVFu7 (ORCPT ); Tue, 22 Nov 2005 00:50:59 -0500 Subject: Re: [RFC] Small PCI core patch From: Arjan van de Ven To: Benjamin Herrenschmidt Cc: Greg KH , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In-Reply-To: <1132616132.26560.62.camel@gaston> References: <20051121225303.GA19212@kroah.com> <20051121230136.GB19212@kroah.com> <1132616132.26560.62.camel@gaston> Content-Type: text/plain Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2005 06:50:52 +0100 Message-Id: <1132638652.2789.4.camel@laptopd505.fenrus.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.2.3 (2.2.3-2.fc4) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam-Score: 1.8 (+) X-Spam-Report: SpamAssassin version 3.0.4 on pentafluge.infradead.org summary: Content analysis details: (1.8 points, 5.0 required) pts rule name description ---- ---------------------- -------------------------------------------------- 0.1 RCVD_IN_SORBS_DUL RBL: SORBS: sent directly from dynamic IP address [213.93.14.173 listed in dnsbl.sorbs.net] 1.7 RCVD_IN_NJABL_DUL RBL: NJABL: dialup sender did non-local SMTP [213.93.14.173 listed in combined.njabl.org] X-SRS-Rewrite: SMTP reverse-path rewritten from by pentafluge.infradead.org See http://www.infradead.org/rpr.html Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1549 Lines: 36 On Tue, 2005-11-22 at 10:35 +1100, Benjamin Herrenschmidt wrote: > On Mon, 2005-11-21 at 15:01 -0800, Greg KH wrote: > > > If you, or your company is relying on closed source kernel modules, your > > days are numbered. And what are you going to do, and how are you going > > to explain things to your bosses and your customers, if possibly, > > something like this patch were to be accepted? > > I'm all about it, but good luck trying to convince ATI and/or nVidia ... that doesn't mean they're allowed to not honor the GPL of course. Also it's almost the same argument as the ndiswrapper discussion: as long as there is an alternative some of these companies (prolly not ati/nvidia although: see [1]) will stay closed, but once there's no alternative they'll just open up. I can see the point of the argument that a change like this needs to be announced for say 6 months first in that feature-removal doc though. [1] Both nvidia and ati have a way out: they can do the IP side (translating 3D stuff into card specific commands) in userspace and just pass the data to the hardware via a thin driver that just drives and controls the hardware. Sure it may be 5% slower, but it's a lot cleaner IP wise. X after all is MIT (bsd like without nasty clauses) licensed and allows binary components. - 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/