[NMLUG] Re: Better than Knoppix

[M. Warner Losh]

In message: <200401011227.03693.neosad1st at charter.net>
            NeoSadist <neosad1st at charter.net> writes:
: >> Nvidia proprietary (but free) driver, and a LOT of us - and probably a
: >> lot of Gateways - have Nvidia video cards. The XFree-provided "nv"
: >No disagreement here.  However, I always had a problem with nVidia's
: >proprietary drivers.  Free or not.  They violate the spirit of the Open
: >Source agreements (in my opinion).  Furthermore, for reasons of
: >practicality, I didn't want to be downloading drivers when I had kernel
: >updates or new OS releases.
: 
: WHAT?!  They don't violate the spirit of the Open Souce movement for
: several reasons:

The spirit of the Gnu Open Source movement is indeed violated.  One
could make the case that they are derivitive works of the linux
kernel, like is being done in the linux kernel list over the past
month or two.

: 1) They're not really open source to begin with (DUH, they're binaries).
: So your statement already makes no sense and is invalid.  Sorry, but
: that comment offended me.

Linux is an Gnu Open Source system.  The whole Gnu philosphy is that
you have all your source.

: 2) nVidia is putting out the driver to support Linux, so you should be
: at least a little more grateful.

nVidia chose to do what it is doing.  It is their choice.

: 3) nVidia won't put out the source code for fear of someone gaining
: knowledge of trade secrets regarding their hardware.  I don't blame
: them.  If the playing field of hardware were equal, then there'd be
: no reason to compete with each other.

True.  That's why they didn't comply with the spirit of Gnu Open
Source.  Maybe that's justified from a business sense, but that
doesn't mean it doesn't violate the spirit of the GPL.

: But the kernel belongs to Linus, and you should read his opinion
: on this subject.  You might find it interesting.

Yes.  IT says that if it is a module, then it could still be covered
by the GPL because it is making a derivitive work of the kernel.  Of
course a few years ago he was saying that a module wasn't a derivitive
work, so looking to him for an opinion would likely not make good
business sense: he changes his mind too often.

Warner