3 ms·
Counting github repos is too dependent on how projects or organized to be anywhere near a useful metric - especially as one of the major advantages of open sour
by kimixa 4y ago
Counting github repos is too dependent on how projects or organized to be anywhere near a useful metric - especially as one of the major advantages of open source is integration to the corresponding open source projects, like the linux kernel and mesa, which aren't under AMD's github.
And even then that count misses a large number of projects, like things under OpenGPU (https://github.com/GPUOpen-Drivers https://github.com/GPUOpen-Drivers and https://github.com/GPUOpen-LibrariesAndSDKs https://github.com/GPUOpen-LibrariesAndSDKs) for example.
It is in NVidia's best interest to foster the ecosystem around their closed system after all, so long as it's all built upon a foundation they control (Their closed source driver, and proprietary interfaces like CUDA). Nobody thought '90s microsoft was an open source beacon, yet they "gave away" a large amount of code - mainly win32 examples and the like.
For someone who claims to be trying to avoid some "Which corporation that doesn't know you exist is the best" fight you have chosen a rather specific unbalanced comparison.
- bsder 4y ago> Counting github repos is too dependent on how projects or organized to be anywhere near a useful metric Agreed. Nvidia have a lot of abandoned Github repos where they dumped code and ran away. This lets them obey the letter of the law and release code without anybody being able to make use of it.
- kkielhofner 4y agoNot sure why or how this is a “fight” other than (as stated in my first comment) it’s one of the more ridiculous religious wars that seems to erupt on HN for reasons I’ll never understand. I’m not going to do a full LoC analysis for an HN comment or analyze recent commits. It was a sixty second way to say “Nvidia has a lot of open source and the reductive HN take/experience from Linux desktop users solely based on their experience with drivers is a tiny piece of the picture”. That said I would bet a dinner that a full analysis of Nvidia open source vs anyone else in the field would favor Nvidia handily.
- kimixa 4y ago> That said I would bet a dinner that a full analysis of Nvidia open source vs anyone else in the field would favor Nvidia handily. It feels a bit weird to agree that any attempt at comparing is silly, and even agreeing on how to compare impossible to define, immediately followed by "But I bet I'd win anyway".