Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 24th Jun 2008 12:07 UTC
A constant thorn in the eye of many Linux kernel developers is the existence of closed-source kernel modules, most notably those by Nvidia and Ati, but also some file system drivers and other elements. Most of the Linux developers have been against these modules ever since they were first used, and in fact, bug reports originating from a tainted kernel are often disregarded and ignored. The kernel developers have now rallied together by issuing a statement urging vendors to release open source Linux kernel modules and drivers.
Permalink for comment 319843
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Recent Original Stories
Recent Comments
Headlines
Random Comments
Random Stories
Random OS Link
Member since:
2007-01-27
It surprises me that very few have read the documents at https://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/Device_driver_statement, which carry a lot of insight into why closed source binary drivers are a bad thing in general for free operating systems.
I would like to add that closed source drivers that are only available for one architecture (generally x86) obviously won't do much for cross-architecture support. I have PCI Ati Radeon 9200 graphics adapters (and will try to find PCI adapters with newer chips, possibly even Nvidia) in both my SPARC and PPC systems that I hope to get working some time soon.
Without the free Xorg and kernel drivers and reverse engineering projects such as nouveau, I would have to give up on the notion of modern affordable graphics on pretty much anything but x86, which the closed source Ati and Nvidia drivers are nevertheless forcing me into.