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> the GNU/Linux driver land is full of closed blobs > [...] > Ever wondered why GNU’s GUIX doesn’t support Nvidia? That’s because the drivers are provided as bl
by jraph 3y ago
> the GNU/Linux driver land is full of closed blobs
> [...]
> Ever wondered why GNU’s GUIX doesn’t support Nvidia? That’s because the drivers are provided as blobs, and therefore closed-source. As a result, the work needed for BSD support is difficult and slow
Isn't it pretty much the only example of this? As long as you don't pick nvidia, you won't have proprietary drivers running.
Of course there are many firmware blobs. It's an issue, I would prefer not running any proprietary firmware, but I don't see how it would be a bigger issue in BSD land.
So yes, the issue is programs assuming Linux (though doesn't many people in the OSS ecosystem using Mac help a bit?), hardware support, and not as much help from the internet. Not too surprising, I would expect this; and the hardware support is what prevents me from considering *BSD. I didn't think of the fact you are not going to be on the bleeding edge too on *BSD, and that would be relevant to me, since I run a rolling distro and take this somewhat for granted.
Bonus note:
> You try to Kagi[6] it and nothing
I would suggest "look it up" as a term that will remain stable and doesn't advertise a particular search engine. The best thing is you won't need a footnote either (however, I sympathize with the wish to make people use something else than Google).
- megapoliss 3y ago> Of course there are many firmware blobs. It's an issue, I would prefer not running any proprietary firmware, but I don't see how it would be a bigger issue in BSD land. It's closed-source, and it's Linux. There is no firmware for BSD.
- ibotty 3y agoBSDs can load most firmware perfectly fine. I don't know what you are talking about.
- megapoliss 3y agoCool I thought it's specific for linux, so it cannot be used on BSD
- BSDobelix 3y agoMost firmware has nothing todo with the operating-system, it's (most of the time) one level lower, firmware-blobs are (again mostly) bit by bit the same on windows linux and BSD.
- jraph 3y ago> It's closed-source Of course it's closed-source. I still don't see how it's a bigger issue for the BSDs than for Linux. As in, it's already a big issue for Linux. On Debian they are in a separate section of the repositories (non-free-firmware) that can be disabled. The *BSD could do the same kind of thing. I believe it's up to the *BSD to decide whether they want to compromise this way, but it's the same issue for Linux and for the *BSD. Unless I'm missing something. > and it's Linux. There is no firmware for BSD. I don't believe the firmware blobs are Linux-specific, are they? They run on the device, their code is not managed by the main OS on the main CPU of the computer. The device doesn't care about what OS is managing them as long as the OS knows how to speak with them. That the drivers are actually to be written / ported to BSD is another matter.
- jasomill 3y agoNvidia ships proprietary drivers for FreeBSD (x64): https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/unix/ https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/unix/ FreeBSD ships firmware blobs both in tree, e.g., https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/tree/main/sys/contrib/dev/iwm https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/tree/main/sys/contrib... and via ports/packages, e.g., https://ports.freebsd.org/cgi/ports.cgi?query=firmware&stype=all&sektion=graphics https://ports.freebsd.org/cgi/ports.cgi?query=firmware&stype...