Should Linux Use Proprietary Drivers?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Tuesday April 18, 2006 @01:11AM from the bring-the-shiny-to-the-penguin dept.

Richard Gray writes "Should Linux accept proprietary video/graphics drivers from likes of Nvidia and ATI ? The GPL written by FSF says that the license prohibits proprietary drivers. From the article: 'To write open-source graphics drivers without help from Nvidia or ATI is tough. Efforts to reverse-engineer open-source equivalents often are months behind and produce only 'rudimentary' drivers, said Michael Larabel, founder of a high-end Linux hardware site Phoronix ... Torvalds has argued that some proprietary modules should be permissible because they're not derived from the Linux kernel, but were originally designed to work with other operating systems.' The FSF however, sharply disagrees. 'If the kernel were pure GPL in its license terms...you couldn't link proprietary video drivers into it, whether dynamically or statically.' Where do you fall on this issue?"

1 of 704 comments (clear)

Re:Come on by walt-sjc · 2006-04-18 02:03 · Score: 1, Troll

The simple fact that FOSS developers have not been able to produce good GPU drivers despite reverse-engineering demonstrates the level of complexity involved.

Sorry, but not only is that comment totally stupid, it's very insulting. The fact that FOSS developers can create drivers without programming docs AT ALL just shows how fucking talented they are. They have a level of skill that most manufacturer driver engineers can only dream about in envy.