Possibly offtopic : Binary only driver

[Sean]

On Sun, November 21, 2004 1:43 pm, Mike Hearn said:

>
> I think you need to talk to the nVidia engineers and/or Alan Cox, who has
> said in the past (I think) that he can't find a way for them to open their
> driver sources without suffering serious consequences. It's not a simple
> matter of patents and legal problems. It's a matter of economics.
>
> Anyway, this whole point is silly: nobody should be *forced* against their
> wishes to open source their code if they don't want to. If open source
> development really is better than the old way, then rational people will
> become a part of it over time if they can.

Similarly no open source developer should be *forced* to deal with issues
created by binary only components.

> The last thing we want is some developers saying "I didn't want to GPL my
> code, but I was forced to". That achieves nothing in the long run. Next
> time they write software that doesn't have to be GPLd they won't do it,
> because nobody made the argument to them for the free software philosophy
> and won.
>
> In fact the most likely thing is not that they'll GPL their sources
> against their wishes, more likely they'll just hack around it or not
> bother.

Either way, Linux will continue under the stewardship of those who
understand and respect the fundamental difference between it and
closed-source alternatives.

Sean