No offense to the interviewer with this post.. This question is directed to all the Open Source only advocates out there....

Why does the above question have to be asked in every single ATI and NVIDIA interview when discussing linux drivers... Everytime they are interviewed this is asked... yet the answer is the same. IP!! they cannot release this information, they are a corporation that is in existance to make money first, provide quality second.. just as every other corpration around this globe is.

Why can't this question be dropped.. why do others whine and cry that they are not open source?? Am I the only linux users that understands why stuff like this is not open source

/rant off

Thanks
Trey

This surely is not the forum for this question. All comments on interviews must be placed in the same thread as the interview.

General is fine for this I'd say. I did know the answer to that question when I asked it, but I wanted a place on LQ to be able to point people to when they asked.

--jeremy

my take: "open source" is not just a nice extra feature of Linux and GPL projects, it's a fundamental element. OSS has been so successful, and will continue to be, directly due to open collaboration and the efforts of thousands of people, and that collaboration depends on others making their contributions open, as well.

although I commend nvidia for their support, they are in effect exploiting that collaboration by not contributing to it. as you said, they're in it for profit, so you have to assume selling cards to Linux users is in their interests. also, it seems a good bet that they sell cards to Linux-only users that they wouldn't have otherwise sold - so they are profiting from the free work of the community, without completely contributing to it.

that said, the argument is that "well, closed drivers are better than nothing" - that makes some sense, but it's not ideal, and not in the spirit of OSS.

I understand your point mate. However, it's was necessary to ask that. This forum is full of questions about why the drivers aren't open source. I myself heard of licenses issues before, but I would not believe until I've heard directly from the horse's mouth... It's always good to have one official answer in the forum ratter then copying the answer from another forum. We can not trust everyone on the net, ya know .

Poor exploited linux let's all cry now! Would someone care to explain to me how the hell you take advantage of linux when people choose to buy their hardware? You don't like Nvidia? Don't buy the cards... Really it is that simple.

PS: Nvidia will never open their drivers because open source does not protect IP. Who is going to stop ATi from reading their source and saying Oh neat i think we will incorperate that algorithm in our next release?

thanks for the sarcasm. put another way, nvidia is profiting by selling a product to users of an OS developed by community effort, without itself fully contributing to that effort. as I said previously, that's fine and acceptable to some, but others may disagree because it does not fit strictly within the OSS philosophy.

Nvidia are not profiting by selling to users of an OS they didn't create. They are profiting by selling a product they did make. The drivers don't cost money to obtain. And OSS does not say that you can't charge for a product, go read the GPL and say where it says that you do. Remember the now legendary saying "free as in speech, not as in beer".

sure, but "free beer" isn't the same as "GPL" -- you can charge for distributing a GPL'd program, and distribute it in binary form provided you supply, or offer to supply, a copy of the source code as well (sec. 3). the nvidia drivers are not released under the GPL.

for example, the GPL states:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
nvidia's license says:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/nv_swlicense.html
anyway, I wasn't saying nvidia necessarily should or should not keep them closed, just offering a reason why many people are interested in the subject and keep asking about it.

There are lots and lots of different licences out there, each of which is "free" to varying degrees. And don't forget, they have spent a ton of money on developing the drivers and hardware, I think they are entitled to try to recoup that.

Any company who makes software for any OS is entitled to use whatever licences they feel are necesary. Just because Linux is under the GNU license does not mean nVidia needs to be. Frankly I would just be thankful that Linux is gettign any support from nVidia in terms of drivers given how craptacular ATi drivers are.

if linux is going to end up seriously competeing with Windows on the same scale I think people are just going have to accept that not everything will be released under the GNU style license and will remain closed source.

i really dont see a reason why nvidia should OS their drivers. they make good drivers that work. while they would probably improve if OS'd, there isnt a big need for it and it would make them vulnrable cause they have to release videocard specs.

ATI on the other hand has failed time and time again to make decent drivers. they are horrible. if they dont get their act together or opensource them soon, we should hack ATI and opensource their drivers on our own.

I did not want to trash the interview thread with a rant

I understand why it is asked.... and once again no offense to you for asking

It may just be me.. but I do not think hardware support should fall into the OSS category... Hardware is marketed to be sold... It cost money to develop hardware and to support it whther it be with a windows, linux or mac driver.

Software on the other hand can be written in someones freetime or commecially, then wrapped up with a pretty liscense to be given away... I do not think hardware falls into this category. Hardware cannot just be written... it has to be written tested thrown away written tested and approved... Lot of money involved to do that.

anyways...

good comments everyone... A lot better responses than what you see on slashdot.

what do you mean?

they arent outsourcing their cards, jsut the drivers.

and the whole of linux was created in peoples free time. im sure the linux community can handle a couple of drivers, esprecially if the bigboys at mandrake/novell/redhat get their hands on them.

what do you guys think about hte idea of nvidia giving their driver sources to the big distro companies and having them improve upon them together and release a joint propriety driver for all linux users?

that way they wont release video specifications to the public, we get better drivers and nvidia gets to lay off a couple of its workers. everybody wins. well...