Rui,
Perhaps you can enlighten me about MACROVISION. Is it this DRM software (http://www.macrovision.com)?
:John
Rui Miguel Seabra wrote:
On Fri, 2004-05-21 at 00:36 +1000, Daniel Stonier wrote:
I for one appreciate that they do provide drivers for linux when linux does
not figure in the mass market.
They provide you with binary only software that has code whose only purpose is to restrict what you can do with your computer: MACROVISION
They don't have to produce the drivers. Interested and capable developers only require information on how to talk to the hardware.
And since they are going out of their way to
do something they do not need to do to thrive as a business, then yes I think
they do deserve some respect for that. Anyone who does a favour for you when
they dont need to do it really does deserve some thanks.
They're not doing you any favour, but that's still besides the point. They would spend far less resources by liberating info on how to talk to the hardware.
Sure it would be nice if it was open source, but it really is difficult to
jump on any bandwagon one way or another without knowing all the issues
regarding NVIDIA's business and legal position, it may simply be completely
impossible for them to survive as a business should they do so. It's very rare
to find a business like RedHat which stands on those principles and surivives.
You're avoiding the issue. NVIDIA has already stated why they can't make the drivers free software: they have third party licensed software that they didn't do themselves.
You're even giving them credit for something they don't do.
Rui
