On Fri, 2005-21-01 at 03:37 -0600, Gain Paolo Mureddu wrote: > This issue (IMO) is a very delicate one (despite the taint)... simply > because to some people it will give them the creeps to think of having a > single piece of proprietary software in their systems... I'm not against > proprietary (if by that we understand comercial too) software on my > system, as long as it gets the job done. Sure I'd rather use free > software (free as in freedom) than proprietary. Still the Open Source > model is generating a shift in people's perception of how software could > be developed, delivered, deployed and more importantly used. In this > regard in particular, besides being one of the areas where Linux needs > more support, mainly from the manufacturers and possibly vendors to > broaden hardware support, consumer hardware at that, and whether we like > it or not, 3D graphics cards fall into this category (from low2mid > range) because often lower-end graphics solutions from the leading > companies rely on virtually the same hardware as their top notch > top-of-the line products counterparts (G6600/X600). The way I see it, > companies have two options: a) Either they provide the drivers > themselves (which has been the case for 3D graphics cards from nVidia > and ATi, heck even Matrox) or b) they provide as much information as > they can (without violating any treatees they could have with third > party technology providers... S3TC, anyone?) so the community could > write pure Open Sourced drivers which will obviously lack both: features > and performance. These two later "side-effects" may not be a problem for > those users to whom proprietary, closed-sourced software gives them > goosebumps, but may lure away from Linux users who are willing to > consider the system as their primary OS. I could not say for sure, but I > estimate that a great deal (most?) of the home desktop owners also at > some point do some gaming (which would justify at least support for the > low2medium range products), where as on corporate desktops that would > not be of any relevance, and full 2D power may still be required. > > Sadly, in the way our society has been modeled, mass success and > pedantic purity are mutually exclusive (refering to pure OSS and mass > addoption)... For some even the price appeal of OSS is not enough to > make the switch, if they're not assured that they will still be able to > use their computer as they are used to... It is difficult to keep > everyone happy... and in that regard Linux and the broad range of > distributions is a belssing. > > My 2¢ Well put.
