Re: nVidia is OS?

[Steven Pritchard <steve@silug.org>]

On Mon, Apr 07, 2003 at 01:45:51AM +0000, mike808@users.sourceforge.net wrote:
> I think there are other things Steve could be frustrated about and
> give voice to.

Am I not ranting about enough things these days?  I'd be happy to work
on that if you'd like.

> The fact is that this issue is about someone who probably already has
> an nVidia card, and Steve's ticked they didn't pick some other video
> card. I'm thinking a newbie response might be:
> 
> "Ungrateful bastard. He should be happy I'm running Linux at all, instead of 
> that Microsoft stuff that runs all my games just fine with my nVidia card ..."

Umm...  Why the hell would I care if someone runs Linux instead of
Windows on their desktop?  *I* certainly don't gain anything.  (Not
directly, anyway.)

I think people should run Linux because it is better, less expensive,
and keeps you from being tied to a single vendor for anything.  I'm
not "grateful" that people run Linux.  I just think they're smart when
they do.

Honestly, the only people I get "ticked" at are the more experienced
users who continue to buy nVidia cards knowing that there are quite a
few other card and chipset manufacturers who are much more
Linux-friendly who (I think) deserve to be rewarded for that behavior.
I don't think any less of people who have recently converted who have
nVidia cards, or people who had systems with nVidia cards fall in
their laps somehow.

I'm not being inconsistent here...  I also don't buy winmodems, and I
will tell anyone who will listen not to buy a winmodem.  I don't think
any less of someone who slaps ltmodem on their notebook so they don't
have to carry around a PCMCIA card though, and I've been known to do
exactly that.  (My last two notebooks have Lucent chipset winmodems,
and it didn't stop me from buying them.)  On the other hand, my first
(and only) answer to people having problems with a winmodem is going
to be "buy a real modem".

BTW, going back to nVidia here...  My problems with them go back to
1998 (as I recall), when they pulled a stupid stunt hours before the
release of XFree86 3.3.3.  To quote from the 3.3.3 release notes:

  After we had finalized XFree86 3.3.3, and within hours of our
  planned release, NVIDIA insisted that we withdraw two source files
  from the driver that they had supplied to us and replace some
  other source files with versions that were partly run through the
  C preprocessor. NVIDIA's stated reason for this was to remove some
  of the names that they thought might reveal intellectual property
  from NVIDIA. This resulted in somewhat unreadable and
  unmaintainable code.

  The XFree86 Project is strongly opposed to such obfuscated code.
  Among other things, such code does not satisfy the Open Source
  definition of "Source Code", which states that

       The source code must be the preferred form in which a
       programmer would modify the program. Deliberately obfuscated
       source code is not allowed. Intermediate forms such as the
       output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed.

  Due to the extremely late date of this decision by NVIDIA, we
  decided to include the code as offered by NVIDIA. All other options
  would have significantly delayed the release of XFree86-3.3.3. We'll
  try to work with NVIDIA to find a more acceptable solution so that
  the code can remain in future releases.

As near as I can tell, in 4.5 years, they still haven't learned how to
handle users of open-source operating systems.

Steve
-- 
steve@silug.org           | Southern Illinois Linux Users Group
(618)398-7360             | See web site for meeting details.
Steven Pritchard          | http://www.silug.org/

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