Nvidia Removed Linux Driver Feature For Feature Parity With Windows

RemyBR writes "Softpedia points to a Nvidia Developer Zone forum post revealing that the company has removed a specific Linux feature as of the v310 drivers due to the Windows platform. A BaseMosaic user on Ubuntu 12.04 noticed a change in the number of displays that can be used simultaneously after upgrading from the v295 drivers to v310. Another user, apparently working for Nvidia, gave a very troubling answer: 'For feature parity between Windows and Linux we set BaseMosaic to 3 screens.'"

Comments

And this why communism doesn't work

[Anonymous Coward]

It makes everyone equal with Windows.

Thus:

[Zanadou]

"We have altered the deal; pray we do not alter it again."

Re:Thus:

[mysidia]

What deal? The only deal would be between Nvidea and Microsoft, who I'm sure paid a princely sum to hide one of Windows' various deficiencies.

Why do that, when you control the Windows logo rules?

Windows must have a preferred status; features available to Windows users must surpass the list of features available to users of competing platforms; that is, as a condition of applying Windows logo certification to a qualifying hardware product, Hardware must have an experience or supported featureset on Windows that exceeds the user experience on any competing operating system.

Re:Thus:

[L. J. Beauregard]

Now ask again why we need antitrust laws with teeth.

Re:Thus:

[ColdWetDog]

They've got Balmer, we don't need antitrust laws.

Re:Thus:

[mgiuca]

I'd love to know whether that's a real quote from the Windows logo rules. Unfortunately, a Google search for the text returns only one result: this comment. [Citation needed]

Re:Thus:

[Raenex]

This is not a quote. It is an implication; that behind closed doors, between vendors, there is an "arrangement" MS requires, and if they refuse to comply --- MS has the stick of refusing logo certification to their product ---- if nVidia doesn't get the Windows Logo; then neither do any of the hardware builders or OEMs using nVidia components; therefore, they are likely to ship someone else's hardware instead, so they can get the logo.

In other words, you made up a phony quote that looks like it's copied straight from a real policy and got modded to +5 Informative, when instead it's just speculation on your part.

QA

[Anonymous Coward]

I bet it's just for the test cases.

SteamOS

[BenJeremy]

I wonder how this will affect SteamOS, since the Steam Machines are nvidia based. Maybe Valve will start throwing their weight around to get nvidia to offer better Linux support?

Re: SteamOS

[jeff.d.woods]

Valve stated that SteamOS will be open source. Even their prototype beta hardware will be open and hackable.

Removing feature for parity with another platform?

[DJ Rubbie]

Anyway, if i'm right, optimus support under linux is not on par with windows.
Are you nvidia going to fix optimus on linux, or "for feature parity" are you going to make the optimus support worse on windows too?

Directly quoting someone from that thread because this was exactly what I was thinking of.

nouveau

[Sqr(twg)]

All this time I've been pissed at the nouveau drivers that came as default with my linux distribution. "NVIDIA's drivers are working perfectly" I thought. "Why the hell are you building something not as good, just to make it open source?"

Now I know.

Re:NVIDIA -- fuck you!

[VortexCortex]

Yeah, well, If Linus had listened to RMS about binary blobs then he wouldn't be giving the finger to NVIDIA, eh? Fucking hypocrite, IMO.

not the first time they remove features.

[DragonTHC]

They removed basic customizable anaglyph support from both after I detailed how you could hack 3D support into Left 4 Dead and other games.

And I'm still an Nvidia fanboy.

Re:not the first time they remove features.

[Blaskowicz]

I used that feature on a Geforce 2MX to try it out, a good while ago. No idea what you mean by "hacking" 3D support, you only had to press a hotkey to enable Stereo 3D in any game or app (with or without great results, but at least it's working or trying to). Five year laters I tried shutter glasses on Geforce 6/7 (too bad FSAA wasn't working, as I had to run at 640x480 or 800x600 on the old CRT to play with stereo).

Anaglyph was really shit though, it fucks your color vision (after using it for a hour your eyes or brain compensate, if you look away from the screen and close one eye, one eye sees in red and the other in blue! to this day my right eye seems to see in a warm tint and the left eye in a cold one)

They still dont get it

[lapm]

Nvidia still dosent get it.. Reminds me of now famous Torvalds quote from video where he send hes regards to Nvidia..

The real reply

[EmagGeek]

"In order to sell more video cards, we set BaseMosaic to 3 screens."

A new law

[mattr]

For any people with free time, how about starting a PAC to get a new law passed that would require hardware manufacturers to provide full specifications of their products to consumers in a standardized format? It could be used not only for open source developers (rights of the consumer to use purchased gear as he or she sees fit) but also could be used to guarantee and verify all provided functions and that there aren't any additional spyware functions included. Conceivably it could be used in a software / firmware binary verification program too.

Re:I smell a lawsuit...

[datapharmer]

Not really so. We ran a comparison before our last server purchase for a larger client and AMD won the performance per dollar ratio for virtualization with the dl 385 g7. I'm also about to make a large desktop refresh purchase for a cost conscious company and the amd offerings from various suppliers offer more bang for the buck. They are mostly using standard office applications, and in a couple cases light adobe work (photoshop, Indesign etc) and for the price even on the more heavily utilized computers we can add a dedicated graphics card and more ram for the same price or less than buying an intel based box. Given that the ram is more expandable on many of the amd chipsets and the raw cpu power just isn't that important any more for the 90% use case it makes sense to have a homogenous environment, so intel is likely out of the picture completely.

In a car anaology, if you are a racecar driver you need a racecar, but as a car manufacturer don't rest on your laurels and think you can charge more just because you have a really fast ferrari. Most people are happy with a slower but reliable toyota with the power window and cruise control at a fraction of the cost.

Thanks nVidia

[turgid]

I've been running accelerated 3D graphics on Linux thanks to nVidia since 2000. And thanks to Linus' pragmatism

In an ideal world, nVidia would provide their drivers as Open Source for the FOSS crowd, and one day they might if they can get the IP issues sorted out.

I am a supporter of Linux and the FSF and I admire and support the efforts and ideals of both. However, these are ideals not physical reality. I choose FOSS wherever possible. I don't run Windows and abandoned MS when Win95 came out. I've done just fine without them (thanks for Slackware, Pat).

I dare say that there are millions of (not very clever) people in the world who would have dismissed Linux and Free Software in general as "rubbish" had they not been able to see it do fast, hardware-accelerated 3D graphics like the commercial OSs. You know what people are like...

Then we had the support for Linux from ATi, not to be left out, and later intel who have very generously provided much data and open source code.

Without nVidia's contribution and pioneering support of Linux, we'd be in a much darker place today and Linux would be not nearly as popular with the average user.

I've been using nVidia graphics cards on my own PCs (all Linux) since 1999 and I've never been disappointed. I'm on my 5th or 6th card now (lost count). And I've never had trouble integrating their driver with Slackware or anything else...

Just a happy customer here, not an employee or shareholder.

Re:NVIDIA -- fuck you!

[redback]

The world needs RMS and people with his viewpoint.

But you cant force everyone to live in their world.

I Moved Your Cheese

[tepples]

we don't live in an ideal world

Agreed so far. But understanding how each deviation from the ideal came about can prove useful in improving the lot of each of us.

and one needs to remember that we're not out to change it.

You need to read I Moved Your Cheese by Deepak Malhotra, an unofficial sequel to a widely read business fable. You can take change lying down, or you can become an instrument of change.

There is a Fix for This

[stoicio]

1.) Go to the Nvidia site and search for 'Linux' and then surf all the linux related
pages on thier site.

2.) Send an email to technical support and ask why you can no longer use all the monitors on your desktop.

3.) Buy an AMD/ATI card , send them an email to let them know why. Let AMD know you are using Linux and why.

4.) Send your old Nvidia card to Nvidia head office for RMA in protest by mail. (Write it off)

Re:MicroSoft needs 3rd party for that?

[mysidia]

I think WHQL certification is mostly MS' way of pressuring component vendors to implement new features they want. For example; UEFI secure boot / OS signing, and preventing OSes such as Linux for booting, or providing TCPA / TCPM (Trusted Computing Platform Modules).

But that's not all. there are plenty of features. Whatever MS requires or forbids will be extremely influential, as computer manufacturers Want to be able to advertise their product using the Windows Logo; and they are required to use only Windows logo certified components in their systems, so a hardware vendor not getting the stamp of approval on their product can be harmful to their business.

MS will use their leverage to do what they think will improve the number of people buying their product --- that includes improving their user experience, or diminishing the user experience of old operating systems, or competing vendors' OS.

For example: making new hardware no longer compatible with XP or Windows 7 would be a win for them, because it encourages more sales of Windows 8.

The WHQL requirements are full of lists of features that must be supported and features that must not be supported by hardware.

In the former category; they list supposed business justifications, and it's all about user experience.

For the latter category; these are limitations of Windows, and the hardware is not allowed to have support for features outside of Windows' limitations.

In the middle category; there are features hardware vendors must ask for permission to implement; that is probably the safest category for MS to use to pressure vendors --- just withhold permission, until they agree to 'off the record' conditions.