Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 9th Sep 2010 17:40 UTC, submitted by kragil
Ahem. I just had to write that all-caps headline. Broadcom's wireless chips - used by just about everybody in this industry - have been a major pain in the bum for Linux users, because the company did not release open source drivers. Workarounds had to be created, lots of pain was had in the process, but now, Broadcom has finally seen the light: they have open sourced their wireless Linux drivers.
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Member since:2006-10-24
Member since:2010-01-11
Member since:2007-02-17
That pretty much leaves only nVidia as the only idio^h^h^h^h company holding out on us.
Hahaha. What a clown. Nvidia doesn't give a damn about you. They have business customers who rely on Linux. That's why there is a driver. That's why the driver doesn't suck. Go back in your cave. And stop open sourcing your brain. It hurts.
Hahaha. What a clown. Nvidia doesn't give a damn about you. They have business customers who rely on Linux. That's why there is a driver. That's why the driver doesn't suck. Go back in your cave. And stop open sourcing your brain. It hurts.
Being separate from the kernel means that the Nvidia driver breaks with every kernel update.
Being separate from Xorg means that the Nvidia driver is incompatible with recent developments in the X stack, such as kernel modesetting (KMS).
KMS is a pre-requisite for the coming upgrade to X that will allow "rootless" X ... as long as the graphics driver is part of the kernel and supports KMS, soon it will be possible to run an X session with non-root privileges. This is a great advance from a security and stability point of view. It will mean also that it might become possible for X to crash and be re-started without having to close applications or login sessions.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NzM2MA
None of these advances will be available to people who run the binary Nvidia graphics driver.
Very soon, if not already, Nvidia will be very much the non-preferred graphics option for use with Linux machines. It may still be possible to run Linux on a Nvidia graphics machine using the nouveau open source driver, but that project is regrettably falling further and further behind in capabilities.
Edited 2010-09-10 05:36 UTC
Member since:2010-01-11
Being separate from the kernel means that the Nvidia driver breaks with every kernel update.
No, that would be the fault of the non-existence of a stable API/ABI, which Greg "Clown" Kroah-Hartman claims isn't necessary.
Linux would be even more useless without an Nvidia driver.
Edited 2010-09-10 07:27 UTC
Member since:2010-01-11
Being separate from Xorg means that the Nvidia driver is incompatible with recent developments in the X stack, such as kernel modesetting (KMS).
Look, Hans, the X server is a certified piece of crap. Unfortunately nothing better exists. Thus we have to make do with this abomination.
It will mean also that it might become possible for X to crash and be re-started without having to close applications or login sessions.
Oh! Already? How marvelous. And here I thought, Linux was behind the times.
Very soon, if not already, Nvidia will be very much the non-preferred graphics option for use with Linux machines. It may still be possible to run Linux on a Nvidia graphics machine using the nouveau open source driver, but that project is regrettably falling further and further behind in capabilities.
Please! Give me a break! Nvidia works. Now. Case closed.
Member since:2010-07-16
KMS is a pre-requisite for the coming upgrade to X that will allow "rootless" X
The nvidia blob doesn't require X running as root and hasn't for quite some time. All it requires is access to the /dev/nvidia and /dev/nvidiactl device nodes, which is achieved by putting the user in the video group, where they need to be for open source drivers too.
There's other stuff requiring X to run as root for now, I don't know details, but I think it regards input device handling, and there's also X writing it's log to /var/log where a user doesn't have write access. Once that stuff is fixed, both open source KMS drivers and the nvidia blob will run on a "rootless" X.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/25/13 0:45 UTC
"So in summary... Google has pulled the plug on support on a protocol they've helped popularize, after years of promising interoperability, for reasons that are dubious at best, and in a way that leaves people who don't jump to the new Hangouts app unable to talk to their contacts without any feedback that their IMs aren't getting through... And they've done that with no warning to anyone. I imagine there's a bunch of people out there wondering where some of their buddies have gone, or why their messages aren't getting responses, because this isn't documented anywhere." Google really messed this up. Such a dick move.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 23:59 UTC
The Tizen Greek Community has some screenshots of a very recent build of Tizen running on a Samsung GT-i8800. It looks wholly unremarkable.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 22:33 UTC
Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Linked by Howard Fosdick on 05/24/13 21:41 UTC
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 14:44 UTC
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 23:22 UTC
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:04 UTC
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:01 UTC
"In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 17:52 UTC
"The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 22:23 UTC
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.More News »
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Member since:
2010-01-11
That pretty much leaves only nVidia as the only idio^h^h^h^h company holding out on us.
Hahaha. What a clown. Nvidia doesn't give a damn about you. They have business customers who rely on Linux. That's why there is a driver. That's why the driver doesn't suck. Go back in your cave. And stop open sourcing your brain. It hurts.
Edited 2010-09-10 04:43 UTC