> Other than inertia, and an overrated idea that proprietary drivers give you a "competitive advantage" over your competitors' very different hardware, why aren't more manufacturers making open source firmware for their hardware?
While this is arguably true for most hardware, GPUs are different from mundane hardware like ethernet adapters. The driver source code will reveal secrets about the hardware architecture, and the architecture changes in every generation. The advantage is not in the software itself, it is not showing the cards you are playing with.
In theory, it would be possible to give out the source code to the video drivers but it would not make sense to give out the source for chips in development. At best, you could get source code dumps after a new chip has rolled out. This is not really open source.
Yes, I want quality open source video drivers but on the other hand I want bleeding edge hardware and competition that drives hardware development.
Disclaimer: I write GPU drivers for living and I'm an open source enthusiast.
I don't see why nVidia can't release a semi open-source driver. For previous generations they can open up everything while the latest generation would come with an pre-compiled blob that can be disabled with a simple compile flag for the purists.
This will allow them to play nice with the kernel, support previous products while taking bug reports and patches, and help game engine designers target 90% of nVidia's user base without signing an NDA.
I'm fine with them releasing the source after the chip is out (why would I need the driver before the chip is out?!) - just not 3 years later, like they're basically doing with Tegra 2 drivers now.
Why can't you ship a basic driver with the kernel that is guaranteed to work with all modern video cards, and then have a website download board specific driver when it comes out? (i.e. the current situation on windows anyway)
While this is arguably true for most hardware, GPUs are different from mundane hardware like ethernet adapters. The driver source code will reveal secrets about the hardware architecture, and the architecture changes in every generation. The advantage is not in the software itself, it is not showing the cards you are playing with.
In theory, it would be possible to give out the source code to the video drivers but it would not make sense to give out the source for chips in development. At best, you could get source code dumps after a new chip has rolled out. This is not really open source.
Yes, I want quality open source video drivers but on the other hand I want bleeding edge hardware and competition that drives hardware development.
Disclaimer: I write GPU drivers for living and I'm an open source enthusiast.