Re: X on new G4 Dual 533
On Thu, May 31, 2001 at 08:14:18AM -0600, Pete Willemsen wrote:
> Hi. I'm also very new to Linux on a PPC. Is it expected that these
> newer PPCs with nvidia cards will actually have accelerated graphics
> support via X at some point in the future? For instance, will nvidia be
> release PPC-based Linux drivers? Something like this would solidify my
> purchase of a new G4.
I was thinking the other day that the GPL should require Nvidia to release
source for their kernel module, if not libGL, etc. The tarball comes with
some GPL source code and a binary file. The build process links the GPL'ed
code and the binary file. You can download an rpm of the resulting linked
file. Since GPLed code is linked in (thus putting the whole thing under the
GPL), and they are distributing binaries, don't they have to distribute the
whole source?
Note that this is a different argument from saying that binary-only kernel
modules can't be allowed because the GPL (which they must be under to be
linked into the kernel) requires availability of source.
Nvidia's case is special because they provide precompiled binaries that
come from (partly, and therefore totally) GPL sources, as well as some of
the GPLed source (which is how we know that the code is GPL). They are
trying to have their cake and eat it too, by releasing source for a wrapper
around their main driver, so they only need to compile the binary for a few
popular distributions, and let people with custom kernels do it themselves.
I think it would have worked if the wrapper had been under the X license or
pretty much anything other than the GPL!
Thanks Nvidia... I think. I hope I'm right about this.
--
#define X(x,y) x##y
Peter Cordes ; e-mail: X(peter@llama.nslug. , ns.ca)
"The gods confound the man who first found out how to distinguish the hours!
Confound him, too, who in this place set up a sundial, to cut and hack
my day so wretchedly into small pieces!" -- Plautus, 200 BCE
Reply to: