--- Rui Miguel Seabra <rms@xxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Tue, 2004-05-25 at 16:18 -0700, Frank Tanner III > wrote: > > When proprietary drivers are all that's available > you > > use them. Whether or not you like it. > > Not really. I didn't want to use NVIDIA's > proprietary driver so I > didn't. > > > It's philosophies like yours that make it so hard > for > > any of the "proprietary" companies > > No. It's people looking only into their belly > buttons... > > > Because the "zealots" will rip them apart for > even > > trying. They dont HAVE to release a video driver > for > > their card in ANY format. > > Of course they don't have to. I'd be perfectly happy > if they released > enough info for driver developers to make one. > > > They released it because > > they wanted to sell more video cards, and they saw > > that Linux was a market share that they wanted. > > Getting a proprietary "black box" driver is better > > than getting no driver at all. > > Getting MACROVISION and unstable boxes is so good, > yummy... NOT! > > > Believe it or not, companies do deserve to make > money > > off of their products. > > No. What you're saying makes absolutely no sense. > > They deserve to *try* to make money. There is no > reason for you to get > money just because you did something. It has to be > worth it for someone. > > > So what if their driver > > contains "black box" proprietary code. They're > not > > charging you for the driver. Linux is about "free > as > > in speech" not "free as in beer". > > What "free speech" does the driver bring? It EVEN > restricts free speech > with it's imposed MACROVISION. You don't even know > what you're talking > about. > > > Do you think Oracle > > releases an Open Source version of their high-end > > databases? Hell no. It's all "black box". > > I don't care about Oracle. There's PostgreSQL. > > Rui > You have your beliefs and I have mine. And mine is that people deserve to try to make a living off of their code, hardware, service they provide. That includes video card manufacturers. The *REASON* their driver is proprietary and has "black box" components is SIMPLE. There are proprietary pieces of code in the video card itself. These drivers need to access these pieces of code. The drivers would have enough information in them to deduce exactly what the code in the card is doing. So, in effect, they would be, in effect, "giving away" their proprietaty card stored on the video card itself. Maybe YOU want them to give away all of their hard work, but there is no compelling reason for them to do so. Don't like their divers? Don't use their cards and stop crying about it. It's called freedom of choice. Me? I will use their cards, and their drivers, because I like their products. ===== -------------------------------------------------------------- "Never memorize what you can look up." -Albert Einstein
