OT: nVidia driver -- everything but open source is slavery?

[Bryan J. Smith <b.j.smith@ieee.org>]

Paul Iadonisi wrote:  
> The last half of that second sentence is where I don't think you are
> going to find much support on this list for.

What, did Microsoft say it or something like it?    ;-ppp
In hindsight, I probably should have phrased it differently.

In a nutshell, I think we agree to disagree between:

- People who think developers never want/need to register software
patents because there are no innovative ideas left or they shouldn't
be anything but disclosed freely (or some variation)

- People that think most software patents are common ideas, but
believe the answer is a much more strict process of granting patents
to those companies that are actually out money to develop new ideas
to remove the current "patent on a dime" non-sense.  Ultimate the
most community-centric approach is to just try to get companies to
work together in a common patent pool, which removes the legislative
issues altogether.

Furthermore, I think I've made my other point that there is a difference
between:

- open standards

- proprietary standards

And that not all open standard, but proprietary source is necessarily
bad, although typically no where near idea as open soruce.  But in
the end, we should all have the right to choose, based on what our
needs are which may or may not simply be "convenience" but other,
critical factors.

Lastly, there are the economical factors of not comparing flat
open licensing where everyone has the right to redistribute to
per-node costs which are not a license to redistribute.

> And do not be so arrogant as to assume that those of us who
> disagree with you on this point have not, in fact, looked at all sides
> of the argument.

If it's more than the simple 2 I've seen from some, then yes, I agree.
I will concede some people see some things my way, and that everything
else is just opinions upon opinions.

> We've just come to a different conclusion than you.

As long we agree that people can use the nVidia driver, as long as
they understand they are "on their own," then I think they can decide
the pros/cons for themselves.  I would love to see many things GPL'd,
but the reality is that it's probably not going to happen for some time.

I just wanted to correct some false statements, I guess I took it too
far.

> You've posted your points, and I don't think continuing to reiterated
> them is going to win over many, if *any* people on this list.
> At the risk of being accused of trying to 'silence' you, I'm now
> politely asking that you take this discussion elsewhere...privately if
> anyone is willing to exchange email with you on the topic.  We've wasted
> enough bandwidth on this already.

If anyone still disagrees with my summary above, please contact me off-list.
I won't post again on-list, even if someone else responds on-list.

Now, who's working on the init for FC5?  I've started going through DBUS.


--
Bryan J. Smith   mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org