Kernel source -- CASE IN POINT (does anyone remember the original thread?)

[Bryan J. Smith]

Does _anyone_ remember what the _original_ point of this was?
It was _not_ the GeForce, but the _nForce_.

It was about nVidia's _nForce_chipset_ drivers, which are 100% GPL.
You have forcedeth, nv_sata and other _GPL_ drivers like i810, 1394,
ALSA, etc...
nVidia puts people on those GPL driver development.
nVidia is probably the most _pro-GPL_ vendor along with Intel
(although I could make cases pro/con for each).

The fact that this has gone mega-anal, because someone wanted to use
the opportunity about the nForce to bitch about the GeForce, is why
so many people are turned-off to Linux.  WE WERE NOT TALKING ABOUT
THE GEFORCE, BUT THE NFORCE!  But that doesn't seem to stop people
from starting a "Jihad" about nVidia -- often in _their_ collective
ignorance.

>From a vendor who has 100% released *ALL* of its technical
specifications on the chipset.  ATI doesn't.  ViA doesn't.  nVidia
_does_!

The fact that so many Tawainese vendors create endless variants of
MAC+PHY is _not_ nVidia's fault.  nVidia works with the kernel team
to add that support to the GPL forcedeth.  Don't shoot them because
they also offer the "nvnet" module for those that don't want to
upgrade their kernel, as well as the older "nvsound" for those not
running ALSA.

In fact, anyone who knows about nVidia and their Xorg/XFree
development knows nVidia puts people on the MIT-licensed 2D driver as
well.  nVidia has _never_ horded 2D knowledge of their RAMDAC, scan
converters, etc... but ATI has, Intel has, others have.

Yes, their kernel-memory (3rd party IP, heavily Intel) and Xorg/XFree
GLX implementation (3rd party IP, heavily Intel, Microsoft, SGI,
etc...).  nVidia _tried_ to release the source back for XFree 3.3.x,
and got letters from everyone -- from Intel to Microsoft to others. 
But you don't have to use them for just 2D.  You can use the MIT
drivers and no kernel-memory driver.

Which is what most other video cards do anyway -- *0* 3D.
And Intel's Linux driver is so far behind their Windows one.
Largely because they won't open up their own IP.

But, again, just WTF does this have to do with the _nForce_?!?!?!

You can't even help someone these days without someone slamming a
fsck'ing pole up your @$$ everytime you try to help them with nVidia.
 And 90% of the time it's because of their ignorance on the nForce!

I love Red Hat, the FSF and the GPL, but I'm sorry, this *BIGOTRY*
has to go!  I don't think Linus would approve either.  I know it's
only a subset of Red Hat, the FSF, etc...  But I'm tired of getting
slamed from just trying to help people (let alone educate them on
forcedeth issues _not_ due to nVidia).


-- 
Bryan J. Smith   Professional, Technical Annoyance
b.j.smith at ieee.org    http://thebs413.blogspot.com
--------------------------------------------------
I'm a Democrat.  No wait, I'm a Republican.  Hmm,
it seems I'm just whatever someone disagrees with.