NVIDIA Driver Developer Discusses Linux Graphics

An anonymous reader writes "Andy Ritger, who leads the NVIDIA UNIX Graphics Team responsible for creating drivers on Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris, has answered many questions at Phoronix about the state of Linux graphics, gaming, and drivers. Ritger shares some interesting facts, such as: the Linux graphics driver download rate is 0.5% that of their Windows driver downloads at NVIDIA.com; how the Nouveau developers are doing an incredible job; creating an AMD-like open-source strategy at NVIDIA would be time intensive and unlikely; and development problems for the Linux platform. Also commented on are new features that may come to their Linux driver within the next twelve months." Like all stories at Phoronix, in common with most other hardware review sites, this one is arbitrarily and maddeningly spread across 8 pages.

Comments

8 pages.. lame

[brxndxn]

Who is going to be the first to just grab the .txt from the article with the pictures and supply it in a common format for all these sites?

What was the topic again? I have ADD and got distracted somewhere.

Re:Misleading statistic

[Lulfas]

While likely accurate, you also forget that Windows users are much more likely to have no clue what they are doing and not be downloading any drivers because they aren't in a car.

Re:Measurement from the NVIDIA site?

[sakdoctor]

I just checked the nvidia site for the first time for linux drivers.

Operating System: Windows Server 2003 64-bit, Windows XP 64-bit
File Size: 123 MB

Operating System: Linux 64-bit
File Size: 21.2 MB ...What?

Re:There's only two questions that matter

[smellsofbikes]

While at some point it may be possible to release some of this information in pubic form it would be quite a monumental effort to go through the vast amounts of internal documents and repurpose them for external consumption.

I wonder how far back that particular typo goes, although I'm too lazy to find out. Regardless, it's a funny mental image.

Comedy Answer

[BandoMcHando]

From page three:

"Q: AMD was able to open source and/or document a lot by separating out the parts they couldn't legally disclose. Similar problems have been cited as preventing NVIDIA from open sourcing their driver (licensed 3rd parts code, etc) or documentation. Could nVidia use the same strategy?"

"... While at some point it may be possible to release some of this information in pubic form ..."

Ever the child... I must admit it made me snigger...

Re:Measurement from the NVIDIA site?

[Mad Merlin]

I just checked the nvidia site for the first time for linux drivers.

Operating System: Windows Server 2003 64-bit, Windows XP 64-bit File Size: 123 MB

Operating System: Linux 64-bit File Size: 21.2 MB ...What?

Clearly Linux is 6x more efficient than Windows.

Re:Measurement from the NVIDIA site?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, Windows is better value. You get 6x as much driver for your money.

Re:Hopefully this will put an end to some trolling

[_Sprocket_]

Wait - you're expecting mere FACTS to dissuade trolls? You must be n.... wait a minute.

Re:There's only two questions that matter

[skine]

I'm sorry you feel that way.

Holy War

[arielCo]

Q: Which text editors or IDEs do NVIDIA Linux developers use?

Most of the engineers on the Linux driver team use emacs and/or vim for their day-to-day development work.

What, no preference? Heretics!

[/sarcasm]

Not to be a grammar nazi...

[Anonymous Coward]

Your card carrying membership to the "Savvy Semicolon Users" club has officially been revoked. Please pry off the appropriate key and mail it to us promptly, or we will find you.

Re:And don't forget the NVidia non-user base

[S.O.B.]

The "dogma" is that it absolutely has to be open source. Everything you've mentioned can also be addressed by a freely available hardware spec without requiring the release of the source code. There's more than one way to skin a cat (apologies to any cat lovers out there) but the purists won't settle for anything less than the source code.