Linked by Eugenia Loli-Queru on Tue 18th Apr 2006 17:49 UTC
Efforts to bring glitzy new graphics to Linux are fueling an old conflict: Does proprietary software belong in open-source Linux? The issue involves software modules called drivers, which plug into the kernel at the heart of the open-source operating system. Drivers let software communicate with hardware such as network adapters, hard drives and video cards.
Thread beginning with comment 116203
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To view parent comment, 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:
2005-07-06
>>Care to explain to me how my using proprietary drivers defeats my purposes for using a FOSS opererating system?<<
It doesn't defeat your purposes, and I didn't mean to imply that it defeated your purposes. You are free to do whatever you like with your installation of Linux. That is the beauty of free software.
My statements were about proprietary drivers in general, not how someone such as yourself may use them.
Look at it this way - if ATI or Nvidia were to ship a version of the Linux kernel with their proprietary drivers built in, and not offer the source to the modifications that they made - would that be OK? Or would it be in violation of the GPL? Offering binary modules that operate in kernel space really is no different, as far as I see it.
>>Perhaps your purposes for doing so are not the same as everyone else's, eh?<<
Curiosity mostly, and Enemy Territory
Anyway, just my .02. Take it for what it's worth.