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Yes, Windows has a stable driver API you can build upon. Linux does not, because they want all drivers to be inlined (included in the kernel) and open source.
by fwxwi 7y ago
Yes, Windows has a stable driver API you can build upon.
Linux does not, because they want all drivers to be inlined (included in the kernel) and open source. nVidia does not want to release their trade secrets, so they don't want to open source their drivers.
(No idea about macOS)
- vertex-four 7y agoOf course, AMD managed, so there’s no technical reason that nVidia cannot.
- fwxwi 7y agoI didn't say there's a technical reason, I said they want to keep their source code secret, which to me is a reasonable argument.
- pepemon 7y agoWell then sway maintainer's reason to explicitly deny support for proprietate nvidia driver is a reasonable argument too.
- fwxwi 7y agoDefinitely, it's his software and he can do whatever he wants, and I'm not criticising him, I'm criticising Linux for not offering a stable driver API. As far as I know they don't even want to allow shims like the one Android Treble introduced. It is not a technical decision, it's a political one.
- vertex-four 7y agoRefusing to open source their drivers is not a technical decision, it’s a political one.
- sheepdestroyer 7y agoThere is a technical rationale that should be read to understand kernel dev's PoV : https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/Documentation/process/stable-api-nonsense.rst https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/Documentation/...
- izacus 7y agoExcept that AMD doesn't have feature parity with Windows driver on open source version and has all the Nvidia driver headaches on closed source version. I'm not sure what AMD really managed here.
- fwxwi 7y agoBecause it is NOT the same driver. AMD, just like nVidia, want to keep their own secret sauce secret, because that's where the money is.
- pmoriarty 7y agoIs so much of their profit bound up in their software? I thought these were hardware companies.
- vertex-four 7y agoIt doesn’t have “all” the headaches on the closed source version, afaik - it still implements the standard APIs and thus works with systems that were designed to work with every other driver from AMD to Mali, unlike the nVidia proprietary driver.
- nemetroid 7y agoAMD's open source driver is fully usable for normal usage (including gaming), and in general more performant than the closed source version. https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=rx590-linux-drivers https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=rx590-li...
- ovi256 7y agoMacOS user: what's a driver ? Seriously though, one of the pleasurable things about using macOS is that you don't have to worry about hardware compatibility. Because there is none, outside the small list of parts officially supported by Apple itself. There are some NVidia cards on that list, yes.
- akvadrako 7y agoLinux has a fairly stable driver API, it just doesn't have an ABI.
- rjsw 7y agoThe GPU API doesn't seem particularly stable to me.