3DLabs Releases Linux Drivers

wilfie writes "3DLabs have released linux drivers for their for Wildcat III and Wildcat 4 Graphics accelerators. Being closed source they'll taint your kernel, but what the heck. Press release with penguin-friendly quotes available too." DataSquid has a note about ATI's Linux support: "While on the job hunt, I came across this posting at ATI seeking a project team lead. Last on the list of key responsibilities is "Act as a leader to improve the overall quality of Linux support at ATI." Good news? Certainly better news than what was suggested before."

Comments

Re:This taints our image

[Dicky]

Taint, in this case, is a technical term. The kernel keeps a flag showing if all the code in it or loaded into it (i.e. modules) is open source, and if a module containing closed source code is loaded, the taint flag is set.

The point, of course, is that when you post on the lkml saying "Wah wah my kernel's dead", they can come back and say "Sorry - we can't fix that because you're running code in your kernel which we don't have access to". Or possibly something less polite :-) But anyway, that's why the taint flag exists.

Re:Why not open source graphics card drivers

[The Analog Kid]

In nVidia's case they licensed code from SGI or some company like that. If they GPL'd the code their would be a lawsuit which I don't think they want. Now you could atleast release the spec for the cards , so the community could create its own drivers. That is proabably why many companies don't get involved in Linux for drivers, because the community already made them.