Re: nVidia-PPC-Linux drivers
> >I think that everyone in the list should sing the petition and I
> >think that this e-mail should be posted in debian-user and other
> >linux distributions and user groups lists. This must be signed by
> >every linux user, because linux is a multiplatform system and
> >everyone (Nvidia included) should understand this.
As desperate as I am for a featureful nVidia driver for my PB12", I
haven't yet signed the petition because I don't quite agree with it.
The first thing I took issue with was "we have to stick with much
feature-less opensource-drivers". I think we all know that the issue
is not that these drivers are "opensource" -- the problem is that
they're based on a more-or-less blind reverse-engineering of the chip,
without any assistance from nVidia. I have trouble signing a petition
that implies that we -- especially Debian users, lord knows -- would
prefer a binary driver to one that has source under GPL or some other
Free license.
I don't like binary-only drivers. I use Debian because I am fiercely
dedicated to Free Software. If nVidia released binary drivers for
PPC, I might be tempted to use them; and the more people who used
them, the more it would delay the development of a complete, fast Free
driver that would work on platforms beyond PPC and x86.
If we're going to get other GNU/Linux user lists involved, we should
be banding together to exert more pressure on nVidia to release specs
to Free Software developers. A binary-only solution is a worse
solution than what we have now.
This goes double, of course, for Broadcom's 802.11x chips (it occured
to me last night that I might have to get one of those Wi-Fi
'adapters' that plug into my ethernet port if I ever want to use
wireless on my Powerbook: how degrading!)
O.
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