[mythtv-users] Current wisdom on PVR-150/250/350/500

Sam Varshavchik mrsam at courier-mta.com
Tue Apr 18 11:01:02 UTC 2006


Jeff Simpson writes:

> This scares me. I don't think linux is *quite* to the point where it
> is big enough to bully the hardware manufacturers into doing what we
> want. If linux says "no more non-gpl kernel drivers", the big hardware
> manufacturers will just stop making them,

No.  The first thing they'll do is stop, assess the situation, and make a 
judgement call.  It may very well be that that's the decision they'll 
eventually make, but they're going to stop and think first.

>                                           they aren't going to just
> throw in the towel and say "you win, here's all our code opened for
> you". We'll be stuck making do with less-than-perfect drivers for a
> long time before we get up to the state we're already at now, and
> forget keeping up with kernel changes.

Do not be so hasty.

1) There's a large pent up demand in Hollywood for Linux renderfarms.  
Neither Nvidia, nor ATI, will give up that market without a fight.

2) Don't kid yourself, neither one of them has Microsoft on their Christmas 
card list.  Every card they sell, a small cut of it goes to Microsoft.  They 
need Linux just like Dell needs Linux -- to wave into Microsoft's face every 
time licensing issues come up for negotiation.

But as long as people are complacent with binary blob drivers, neither 
Nvidia nor ATI has any reason whatsoever to rock the boat, and things will 
NEVER get better.  That's the problem that most people do not understand.

> I'd like to see it, too. I love the idea of open source, I just don't
> think that closed-source should be as negative. They are making
> drivers, the drivers are working. If the drivers sucked, I can see why
> people would want to have open-source, but the drivers work great.

You forgot to insert the words 'today, on i386 only, and perhaps x86_64' 
after 'working'.

>> I think it's just a matter of time before the other shoe drops.  Of
>> course, there's going to be a major dust-up; there will be a lot of hootin'
>> and hollerin'.  But the answer to that will be: go get the Intel graphics
>> chipset.
>>
>> [1] As an aside, in this context "free software" is a more technically
>> correct term, than "open source".
> 
> Is it?
> 
> the nvidia binary drivers are free, and they are software. They just
> aren't open source.

You are making a common mistake of mixing up free-beer versus free-speech.


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