Hmm, I didn't order my Intel GPU direct from Intel either, but I can
still access the driver bugzilla. I guess you finally have some evidence
of how open source support can be better.
Different perhaps. I don't see how that makes it better other than
listing hundreds, if not thousands of bugs that haven't been fixed,
and may never be fixed.
Well, a list of unfixed bugs would tell you what bugs were real, how
common they were, who you could contact to see if workarounds were
found, what level of development is occurring, and whether your
particular issue is likely to be addressed any time soon.
I'm sorry but I'm not following you here. Are you stating that having
the source for the driver allows you to plan your hardware
requirements?
No. I'm saying that in my experience, dealing with the hardware quirks
and limitations imposed by the intel driver are easier to manage than
the software quirks of the closed drivers.
Once you know you need DDC/DI, you buy NEC Multisyncs (or whatever).
Problem solved. (And the driver developers have indicated that the
DDC/DI requirement will be removed in the future, incidentally.)
Binary drivers and open kernels, however, make a square peg <> round
hole system. It's just hard to maintain over the long-term.
I'm not even making that argument. I'm just saying that people are
seemingly unaware that the market segment which finds Intel's graphics
offerings sufficient is a rather small segment from a revenue
perspective. Most people are unaware of the fact that desktop usage
is not where most companies get the bulk of their revenue, other than
by sheer volume. Its done either by quantity or quality. And no, i'm
not implying that Intel's drivers or hardware are low quality, just
that they are going on quantity to make money.
OK, nvidia doesn't want to spend the effort on a decent open source
driver because the market isn't worth it. That's fine, and that's
nvidia's call. But for the linux user, it sucks, and Intel's approach is
better - for the average, non-movie-editing user. The nvidia approach
only benefits power video users. Let's not pretend that nvidia is a good
solution for the typical user.
Of course, it doesn't explain why nvidia doesn't actively support the
nouveau driver.
Can't or won't? I've seen many kernel backtraces from systems that
happened to have closed source drivers on them, where the backtrace
never even made a passing reference to the closed source driver and
the developers refused to look at it. Sure, there's a chance that the
closed source driver contributed to, or even caused the problem, but
there's an even better chance that it was completely uninvolved. This
stance seems more to do with religious zealotry than technical
limitations. And its certainly their right to stand up for their
principles. However, hiding behind them is something entirely
different.
Hmm, kernel developers are religious zealots and I'm a fan boy. Did you
run this past the PR department? :-)
The kernel developers are busy, why should they cooperate with you if
you won't cooperate with them?
- Mike
