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I wish the economics of the present were somewhat different, and that money didn't exist in the 21st century. And yet, in the world we live in, I have a hard t

by twtw 8y ago

I wish the economics of the present were somewhat different, and that money didn't exist in the 21st century. And yet, in the world we live in, I have a hard time faulting a corporation for not giving away their core products for free.

xvilka 8y ago
Well, for example, many other corporations have a friendlier stance to open source. It is not only about money and profits.
- TomVDB 8y ago
  Nvidia, the worst company to the open source, has 127 open source repositories on GitHub.
  - twtw 8y ago
    Cue the argument that these "don't count" because they use CUDA.
    - xvilka 8y ago
      By the way, are you an NVIDIA employee? Judging by your comments and submissions. Then it would explain all the protective arguments.
      - twtw 8y ago
        Obviously, I have a bias coming into this discussion (and so do you). Mine comes from experience in a world of hardware and physical products that gives me a greater affinity for the business model of hardware companies than "open source friendly" advertising giants. I have a fascination with the war of words free software adherents wage against nvidia - the company could give out candy to children and it would get criticized because Linus gave them the finger. I'll also admit that I am entertained by the no true scotsman squirming that occurs when I point at things that nvidia has done that don't support the story that it is the evil empire.
        abraae 8y ago
        You're on the right side of this argument but that doesn't mean you shouldn't answer the question.
        jacquesm 8y ago
        He's under no such obligation. Unless you have hard proof it would be nice if you did not contribute to attempts to label people here as shills. See HN guidelines.
        abraae 8y ago
        Ha, fair enough. I would like to argue but the relevant comment has been flagged, so I don't have the material to make a case, and I gracefully concede this point. However while we're being HN etiquette pedants, the original comment clearly breaches this guideline: > Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents. The original comment virtually embeds a confession that it is flame war material: > Cue the argument that these "don't count" because they use CUDA. I introduce this just to point out that a strict interpretation of the HN rules can stifle reasonable discussion.
        richardbdrowley 8y ago
        Please don't play moderator.
      - jacquesm 8y ago
        Flagging your comment. See guidelines. "Please don't impute astroturfing or shillage. That degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about it, email us and we'll look at the data. "
  - floatboth 8y ago
    Yeah, a bunch of little libraries and obscure experiments, while people want drivers. Repository counts don't mean anything. You need context. So just look at their competitors. AMD and Intel both have many dedicated employees directly committing into Mesa. There are two open source implementations of Vulkan for Radeon GPUs, ffs. AMD is working on Radeon Open Compute to get all the code written against CUDA to work anywhere. There is no proprietary Linux driver for Intel GPUs. BTW even Broadcom and Qualcomm are supporting Mesa now. While nvidia uh.. was interested in nouveau on Tegra a little bit but is completely against nouveau on desktop.
    - TomVDB 8y ago
      > ... while people want drivers And Nvidia has decided that it's not in their best interest to give away that IP for free. If they believe that their driver has secret sauce that gives then an competitive advantage, then that's entirely their prerogative. > AMD is working on Radeon Open Compute to get all the code written against CUDA to work anywhere. If you were in a position where your proprietary software fueled 90%+ of a highly profitable industry, would you open source it just for the good of humanity? Of course AMD is trying to copy that and open source it: they don't have 90%+ market share to lose. It doesn't cost them anything to do so.
deleted 8y ago
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by twtw 8y ago

xvilka 8y ago

Well, for example, many other corporations have a friendlier stance to open source. It is not only about money and profits.

TomVDB 8y ago
Nvidia, the worst company to the open source, has 127 open source repositories on GitHub.
- twtw 8y ago
  Cue the argument that these "don't count" because they use CUDA.
  - xvilka 8y ago
    By the way, are you an NVIDIA employee? Judging by your comments and submissions. Then it would explain all the protective arguments.
    - twtw 8y ago
      Obviously, I have a bias coming into this discussion (and so do you). Mine comes from experience in a world of hardware and physical products that gives me a greater affinity for the business model of hardware companies than "open source friendly" advertising giants. I have a fascination with the war of words free software adherents wage against nvidia - the company could give out candy to children and it would get criticized because Linus gave them the finger. I'll also admit that I am entertained by the no true scotsman squirming that occurs when I point at things that nvidia has done that don't support the story that it is the evil empire.
      - abraae 8y ago
        You're on the right side of this argument but that doesn't mean you shouldn't answer the question.
        jacquesm 8y ago
        He's under no such obligation. Unless you have hard proof it would be nice if you did not contribute to attempts to label people here as shills. See HN guidelines.
        abraae 8y ago
        Ha, fair enough. I would like to argue but the relevant comment has been flagged, so I don't have the material to make a case, and I gracefully concede this point. However while we're being HN etiquette pedants, the original comment clearly breaches this guideline: > Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents. The original comment virtually embeds a confession that it is flame war material: > Cue the argument that these "don't count" because they use CUDA. I introduce this just to point out that a strict interpretation of the HN rules can stifle reasonable discussion.
        richardbdrowley 8y ago
        Please don't play moderator.
    - jacquesm 8y ago
      Flagging your comment. See guidelines. "Please don't impute astroturfing or shillage. That degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about it, email us and we'll look at the data. "
- floatboth 8y ago
  Yeah, a bunch of little libraries and obscure experiments, while people want drivers. Repository counts don't mean anything. You need context. So just look at their competitors. AMD and Intel both have many dedicated employees directly committing into Mesa. There are two open source implementations of Vulkan for Radeon GPUs, ffs. AMD is working on Radeon Open Compute to get all the code written against CUDA to work anywhere. There is no proprietary Linux driver for Intel GPUs. BTW even Broadcom and Qualcomm are supporting Mesa now. While nvidia uh.. was interested in nouveau on Tegra a little bit but is completely against nouveau on desktop.
  - TomVDB 8y ago
    > ... while people want drivers And Nvidia has decided that it's not in their best interest to give away that IP for free. If they believe that their driver has secret sauce that gives then an competitive advantage, then that's entirely their prerogative. > AMD is working on Radeon Open Compute to get all the code written against CUDA to work anywhere. If you were in a position where your proprietary software fueled 90%+ of a highly profitable industry, would you open source it just for the good of humanity? Of course AMD is trying to copy that and open source it: they don't have 90%+ market share to lose. It doesn't cost them anything to do so.

deleted 8y ago

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