Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932154AbVLHO2N (ORCPT ); Thu, 8 Dec 2005 09:28:13 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S932162AbVLHO2N (ORCPT ); Thu, 8 Dec 2005 09:28:13 -0500 Received: from newton.gmurray.org.uk ([81.2.114.237]:55010 "EHLO newton.gmurray.org.uk") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S932154AbVLHO16 (ORCPT ); Thu, 8 Dec 2005 09:27:58 -0500 X-DKIM: Sendmail DKIM Filter v0.2.0 newton.gmurray.org.uk jB8ERvWR001315 From: Graham Murray To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Linux in a binary world... a doomsday scenario References: <1133779953.9356.9.camel@laptopd505.fenrus.org> <21d7e9970512050339s392c12a9jd4168cd707bb5e8d@mail.gmail.com> X-Hashcash: 1:22:051208:linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org::tt0Kx1VL9yst30Gz:000000000000000000000000000000000AMS+ Date: Thu, 08 Dec 2005 14:27:56 +0000 In-Reply-To: <21d7e9970512050339s392c12a9jd4168cd707bb5e8d@mail.gmail.com> (Dave Airlie's message of "Mon, 5 Dec 2005 22:39:42 +1100") Message-ID: <87u0djiryr.fsf@newton.gmurray.org.uk> User-Agent: Gnus/5.110004 (No Gnus v0.4) Emacs/22.0.50 (gnu/linux) 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: 1433 Lines: 25 Dave Airlie writes: > ATI engineers now use the excuse well NVIDIA have a closed source > driver so we have to have one to compete. Again neither company is > willing to put resources into doing much on the open source scene > due to lack of staff, reasons, and neither company is willing to > give info to open source developers because they need to push it all > past their legal departments (despite this info existing and a > number of open source developers having access to it via $job). Maybe one day they might see that having an open source driver, or even just releasing the hardware interface specifications so that drivers can be written, will give them an advantage over those who only have closed source drivers. After all, these companies are in the business of designing and selling hardware and knowing the interface specifications (ie the registers and the commands which have to be sent to them etc) should not give away the layout of the silicon (ie does not give competitors information about how the commands are translated to actual operations on the screen). So publishing the interface should not violate the IP of the silicon design owners. - 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/