NVIDIA driver *taints* kernel???

[Sam Varshavchik]

Guy Fraser writes:

> On Thu, 2005-20-01 at 18:51 -0500, Sam Varshavchik wrote:
>> 
>> Well, these closed source drivers may be there today.  Will they be there 
>> tomorrow?  When a new kernel comes out, is there any chance that NVidia 
>> might change their mind, decide not to invest any more resources into 
>> support AMD64, and stop providing bug fixes and updates?
>> 
>> I know I won't have that problem with an open source driver.
> 
> Horse pucks.
> 
> Open source does not mean "will not break", it more or less means 
> that when it does break a group of committed individuals will do
> there best to get it to work when they can.

It also means that you can fix it yourself.

And both of these bullet points are two more bullet points than you get with 
closed source code.

> The last time the nVidia closed source drivers broke in FC it 
> was due to RH making preemptive changes to the stack size of the 
> kernel. Within a week or so nVidia had updated there binary 
> driver to work with RH kernels.

As the saying goes: past performance is no guarantee of future results.

You have no guarantees that NVidia will always continue to update their 
closed source code.  You can point to their previous track record all you 
want.

It doesn't matter.

With open source code, at the bare minimum you will be able to maintain the 
code yourself.

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