X.org server 1.5: An ABI Too Far?

[Andrew Farris]

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams wrote:
> On Sun, 2008-03-16 at 13:30 -0700, Andrew Farris wrote:
>> Their official position 
>> has been stated at nvnews.net that they intend to wait for the official release 
>> of xorg 7.4.  I think the unstable ABI is being used as an excuse not to get the 
>> driver done.  It will look bad on both their part and on Fedora's part *again* 
>> if a Fedora release goes out on which the nvidia proprietary driver cannot be 
>> used.  I don't think it is something that is Fedora's problem though.
> 
> Last time we (not really, but you know what I mean) hosed ATI. Now it's
> nVidia's turn. Consider it proof of failure of the "Proprietary Driver
> Model".

Actually, to be honest, I don't see the model failing.  What I see is a 
discontinuity between the resources necessary to make it work.. and the current 
status quo.  If there was more developer time (on nVidia's end) dedicated to the 
linux platform, and a little more support staff keeping an eye on the larger 
community it could work alot better.  It appears to me that there is very little 
interaction with the community, and the upstream developers directly, and that 
could be better as well.

The windows platform takes priority, and noone can argue it shouldn't without 
some serious disillusionment.  But given a stronger effort I don't see any 
reason the linux platform can't be properly supported by close sourced drivers. 
  Its a matter of resources to get the job done.

-- 
Andrew Farris <lordmorgul at gmail.com> www.lordmorgul.net
  gpg 0xC99B1DF3 fingerprint CDEC 6FAD BA27 40DF 707E A2E0 F0F6 E622 C99B 1DF3
No one now has, and no one will ever again get, the big picture. - Daniel Geer
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