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Other than inertia, and an overrated idea that proprietary drivers give you a "competitive advantage" over your competitors' very different hardware, why aren't

by devx 13y ago

Other than inertia, and an overrated idea that proprietary drivers give you a "competitive advantage" over your competitors' very different hardware, why aren't more manufacturers making open source firmware for their hardware? Especially after the NSA scandal, we should really demand open source firmware from hardware manufacturers with every chance we get.

swetland 13y ago
Proprietary drivers and firmware are really two separate issues. Proprietary drivers usually are the result of licensed code that can't be open sourced or IP concerns (giving away the "secret sauce", patent worries, etc). Provided it can't be updated behind your back, I don't see proprietary firmware as particularly harmful unto itself -- it'd be nice if it were open and make the device less of a black box, but from the POV of the driver or user, there's not really much difference between a device with an embedded CPU running some firmware and a device implementing the same functionality in the asic.
exDM69 13y ago
> Other than inertia, and an overrated idea that proprietary drivers give you a "competitive advantage" over your competitors' very different hardware, why aren't more manufacturers making open source firmware for their hardware? While this is arguably true for most hardware, GPUs are different from mundane hardware like ethernet adapters. The driver source code will reveal secrets about the hardware architecture, and the architecture changes in every generation. The advantage is not in the software itself, it is not showing the cards you are playing with. In theory, it would be possible to give out the source code to the video drivers but it would not make sense to give out the source for chips in development. At best, you could get source code dumps after a new chip has rolled out. This is not really open source. Yes, I want quality open source video drivers but on the other hand I want bleeding edge hardware and competition that drives hardware development. Disclaimer: I write GPU drivers for living and I'm an open source enthusiast.
- RamiK 13y ago
  I don't see why nVidia can't release a semi open-source driver. For previous generations they can open up everything while the latest generation would come with an pre-compiled blob that can be disabled with a simple compile flag for the purists. This will allow them to play nice with the kernel, support previous products while taking bug reports and patches, and help game engine designers target 90% of nVidia's user base without signing an NDA.
- devx 13y ago
  I'm fine with them releasing the source after the chip is out (why would I need the driver before the chip is out?!) - just not 3 years later, like they're basically doing with Tegra 2 drivers now.
  - damien 13y ago
    You need the driver before the chip is out so that your favorite distro already supports it when you buy that new GPU card.
    - bigdubs 13y ago
      Why can't you ship a basic driver with the kernel that is guaranteed to work with all modern video cards, and then have a website download board specific driver when it comes out? (i.e. the current situation on windows anyway)

by devx 13y ago

swetland 13y ago

Proprietary drivers and firmware are really two separate issues. Proprietary drivers usually are the result of licensed code that can't be open sourced or IP concerns (giving away the "secret sauce", patent worries, etc). Provided it can't be updated behind your back, I don't see proprietary firmware as particularly harmful unto itself -- it'd be nice if it were open and make the device less of a black box, but from the POV of the driver or user, there's not really much difference between a device with an embedded CPU running some firmware and a device implementing the same functionality in the asic.

exDM69 13y ago

> Other than inertia, and an overrated idea that proprietary drivers give you a "competitive advantage" over your competitors' very different hardware, why aren't more manufacturers making open source firmware for their hardware? While this is arguably true for most hardware, GPUs are different from mundane hardware like ethernet adapters. The driver source code will reveal secrets about the hardware architecture, and the architecture changes in every generation. The advantage is not in the software itself, it is not showing the cards you are playing with. In theory, it would be possible to give out the source code to the video drivers but it would not make sense to give out the source for chips in development. At best, you could get source code dumps after a new chip has rolled out. This is not really open source. Yes, I want quality open source video drivers but on the other hand I want bleeding edge hardware and competition that drives hardware development. Disclaimer: I write GPU drivers for living and I'm an open source enthusiast.

RamiK 13y ago
I don't see why nVidia can't release a semi open-source driver. For previous generations they can open up everything while the latest generation would come with an pre-compiled blob that can be disabled with a simple compile flag for the purists. This will allow them to play nice with the kernel, support previous products while taking bug reports and patches, and help game engine designers target 90% of nVidia's user base without signing an NDA.
devx 13y ago
I'm fine with them releasing the source after the chip is out (why would I need the driver before the chip is out?!) - just not 3 years later, like they're basically doing with Tegra 2 drivers now.
- damien 13y ago
  You need the driver before the chip is out so that your favorite distro already supports it when you buy that new GPU card.
  - bigdubs 13y ago
    Why can't you ship a basic driver with the kernel that is guaranteed to work with all modern video cards, and then have a website download board specific driver when it comes out? (i.e. the current situation on windows anyway)