nvidia

[Ric Moore]

On Mon, 2007-10-29 at 10:19 -0700, Craig White wrote:
> On Mon, 2007-10-29 at 03:21 -0400, Ric Moore wrote:
> > On Sun, 2007-10-28 at 20:05 -0700, Craig White wrote:
> > > On Sun, 2007-10-28 at 22:37 -0400, David Boles wrote:
> > > > What is your latest disaster this time anyway? I missed that part of
> > > > this
> > > > thread.
> > > ----
> > > Les' mission is to save us from the evils of GPL license.
> > 
> > Not so, no where did Les say that, Craig. I know Les ...he has a bunch
> > of coding chops under his belt and he's a helluva decent human being.
> > The point is that it needn't be anathema if the only way to get a device
> > working correctly is to use a driver from the manufacturer. Sure, pang
> > on them until the cows come home to open up their code. I believe in
> > that. One day everyone will see * * The Light * *. Guys like Alan Cox
> > could tell them a thing or three or ten about proper interfacing to the
> > kernel. 
> > 
> > Meanwhile, getting stuff to work is a consideration for Joe Lunch de
> > Bucket, Les, me and a bunch of others. And, we deal with what we got as
> > we can. :) Ric
> ----
> evidently you don't know Les all that well or simply haven't tracked his
> feelings about GPL

Read the book I just wrote. I know Les pretty darn well, for never
having met him in person. I understand where he is coming from and it
takes just a perception shift to understand Les. He's an old school
ex-navy coder that takes a very personal interest in computing systems.
He's not some script kiddie or Joe Lunchbucket whining about the latest
space game not working. 

His position is the same as mine that if the GPL stops you **utterly in
your tracks** from doing useful stuff, then the old-school "Right Thing"
principle kicks in. You look for a solution, any solution to get the job
done. Something is rotten in Denmark when the goal is being righteous as
opposed to being Right. I used to think that the old Debian crowd were
the only zealots in Linux Land. If someone in the know on this list had
told me that there are proprietary bits missing and that to solve the
problem would be to use the nVidia supplied driver, I would be several
months ahead of where I am now. I'm royally jerked that someone knew
this and didn't tell me on the list out of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.
Period. The little bit of pay that I get comes from donations to our
Non-Profit, from some great people and almost two months worth was
wasted while I was sweating bullets. See why I'm pissed? I thank GOD
that Les stepped up to help me regain lost ground. He really knows his
stuff. Far more than you would guess. I thank Lonnie for cluing me in as
well. He was right, as my problem vanished immediately.  

OTOH, I will email nVidia (while I know that Lonnie is in lurking mode
here) and ask that they at least Open Source the the older hardware code
where the added benefit is that they don't have to provide nor maintain
it anymore. They can do the same for the Winders crowd. What say you? I
think that would be a dandy idea with the added benefit that NVidia just
upped the ante on their competitors. Any free press is GOOD PRESS! Right
Lonnie? I know you're there! Make this thing happen, if you can. That
will also be the "Right Thing". Ric


-- 
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My father, Victor Moore (Vic) used to say:
"There are two Great Sins in the world...
..the Sin of Ignorance, and the Sin of Stupidity.
Only the former may be overcome." R.I.P. Dad.
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