Slashdot Mirror
AMD Confirms Vulkan Driver For Linux, But To Start Off As Closed-Source
An anonymous reader writes: AMD has finally revealed some basic details concerning their support of Vulkan on Linux. AMD has a Vulkan driver but it will begin its life as closed-source, reports Phoronix. In time the AMD Vulkan driver will transition to being open-source. This Vulkan driver is built to interface with their new AMDGPU kernel DRM driver that's part of their long talked about AMD open-source strategy for Linux. This closed-then-open Vulkan driver will be competing with Valve's Intel Vulkan driver that will be open from day one.
No doubt, AMD loves to tout open this and that but keeps their stuff closed as long as possible. example, AMD said mantle was gonna be open source for since day one, did THEY ever release the source for it before killing development for it?
But they definitely love having people develop free drivers for them so they dont have to pay for it while releasing as little as possible information to do it.
I have a Vulcan driver... he's very dependable, never a road-rager (except during Pan Faar but I usually just give him the week off).
Most of it turned into Vulkan in the first place so...yes?
I would guess their assorted contracts with console makers is the reason for closed source issues more than some AMD desire to keep code secret for ??? and profit. Mantle supports XBox and PS4, I doubt it does that without a whole lot of proprietary(and therefore licensed) information about their platforms.
is it better to give us a functional binary blob that still has licensed code or make us wait for it to be completely removed and tested?
> To keep the competition in the dark?
I would doubt it would give the competition any real advantage - given that the it's written specfically for AMD hardware and the competition already have working drivers that are doing the same thing as AMD's drivers.
More, likely it's to hide stuff that might be infringing on patients, contain plagarised code, or gaming benchmarks.
Like the saying goes.... Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me a dozen times over the course of two decades, shame on me. I fully expect to be nickel'ed and dime'ed over features like clock-speed, GPU, video transcoding, and thermal management until well after the product's lifecycle.
Probably more accurately, they are building the driver to work first, then they need to do a legal assessment to see what code (if any) has restrictions on it.
Hard to do that before it has taken shape and starts working.
No doubt, AMD loves to tout open this and that but keeps their stuff closed as long as possible. example, AMD said mantle was gonna be open source for since day one, did THEY ever release the source for it before killing development for it?
AMD has failed to execute in a number of areas, I don't think this is any more of a "planned failure" than the rest. In particular you have to produce what you want to release first, then get it through legal so it's not surprising that an abandoned project hasn't open sourced any code. Their problem is that Intel is becoming usable for casual gaming - it has 20% market share on Steam now, they're open source too and unlike AMD they've got a war chest to fight on every front at once. Sure, Intel doesn't have high-end discrete cards but you don't find many of the AAA games that need them on Linux either so they have it where it matters. If Intel has day one open source Vulkan support and AMD doesn't then their whole open source strategy is pretty much a failure, they've had years of head start and still get left in the dust.
Not that I'm really surprised the whole "traditional" AMD including old ATI had $378 millions of revenue last quarter, that's regular CPUs , APUs and GPUs combined. The rest was enterprise/embedded/semi-custom solutions. Fury was not the savior many hoped for, Zen had better be if they want to exist in the consumer space at all.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Is it closed source because the Direct Rendering Manager driver has to enforce Digital Restrictions Management in order for things like Netflix to work?
?No doubt, AMD loves to tout open this and that but keeps their stuff closed as long as possible. example, AMD said mantle was gonna be open source for since day one, did THEY ever release the source for it before killing development for it?
AMD has failed to execute in a number of areas, I don't think this is any more of a "planned failure" than the rest.
It's not about that. It's more that if you were planning for AMD to actually release the stuff they said they would release, you're making unrealistic plans.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
It's not about that. It's more that if you were planning for AMD to actually release the stuff they said they would release, you're making unrealistic plans.
That has been obvious for quite some time, yes. And though you can use marketing BS to bridge a few gaps in your product line-up and string users along to wait a while, every once in a while you must deliver and cash in the sales. If not the users will understand that they're just chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and buy a product that's on the shelf and delivers today. You saw it most clearly on the FX line that AMD never officially killed, fans were waiting and hoping in vain only to slowly turn sour and buy an Intel. Giving people false hope is even worse than the truth.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
There is no reason to keep this closed source. Their developers are obviously morons (proven by the last 20+ years of idiocy). Maybe try actually embracing a new form of software? Seeing as how it shouldn't matter to a hardware company. I mean there are developers chomping at the bit to create badass software for you products. Yet you shun them? WTF?!
Fucking hell, how many times do you want to shoot yourself in the foot? I hate to see AMD die because there is no other competition to Intel but God Damn they keep pushing it... they are idiots at a level that I can't even describe. I'm continually impressed that they have even stayed in business this long. Morons!
No, fuck YOU, AMD. I'm buying intel.