Re: **NVIDIA driver petition**
> >Has anyone stopped to think that maybe nvidia can't
> >open source their drivers? I know for a fact they can't
> >because of certain things, that if anyone has paid
> >attention to game boards or interviews, restrict them
> >from open sourcing their code.
>
> I'm curious as what prevents them from "opening" up their
> source? Can you please expand on this...
They may be (legally) using code from another company who doesn't have
any interest in "opening" their code. Netscape had this "problem" with
Navigator/Communicator when they started up the Mozilla project. It took
them months to "cleanse" the codebase...
Another example is Microsoft's Internet Explorer (using it at work right
now...). From the help menu, here's some of the text:
Based on NCSA Mosaic. NCSA Mosaic(TM); was developed at the National
Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign.
Distributed under a licensing agreement with Spyglass, Inc.
Contains security software licensed from RSA Data Security Inc.
Portions of this software are based in part on the work of the
Independent JPEG Group.
Contains SOCKS client software licensed from Hummingbird Communications
Ltd.
Contains ASN.1 software licensed from Open Systems Solutions, Inc.
Multimedia software components, including Indeo(R); video, Indeo(R)
audio, and Web Design Effects are provided by Intel Corp.
Unix version contains software licensed from Mainsoft Corporation.
Copyright (c) 1998-1999 Mainsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Mainsoft is a trademark of Mainsoft Corporation.
*If* Microsoft wanted to or was forced to "open" IE up (please, this is
just an example that I have handy), they'd either have to get permission
from Spyglass, RSA Data Security, Hummingbird, etc, etc or remove those
portions. Safe to say, it will likely be broken at that point (yeah,
yeah, it's already broken, right ?? ;-0 ).
Regards
Hall Stevenson
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