ATI video comes out of the closet

[Les Mikesell]

Tim wrote:
> On Thu, 2007-09-06 at 22:02 -0500, Les Mikesell wrote:
>> nVidia themselves are doing more work for the Linux version since they
>> can't count on a stable interface.
> 
>   From what I've seen of the Linux stance on this, their attitude (which
> I don't necessarily disagree with) was:  You make your device driver or
> hardware stable, and we'll deal with keeping our kernel working with it.

They've never offered that as equals across a stable interface and 
instead demand to own the source.  From the other side it comes across 
more like an extortion demand: give us your source or we'll keep 
breaking the interface until you give up.  I think ATI may have given 
up.  Nvidia claims they can't because of legal issues with third party 
code - and in any case they should have the right to control their own 
work without having their customers shot in the feet if they want to try 
Linux.

> The one thing I dislike, compared to the BSD notion, is stuffing
> everything into the kernel.

They can't demand to control it otherwise.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com