NVIDIA Tegra With Dedicated Quadro/GeForce?

[JanC]

Imagine the existence of a patch that removes all "GPL only" restrictions from the linux kernel

The patch itself would also be GPL

Nobody can stop the patch from being distributed

Nobody can stop anyone from assembling a distribution using this patch

Removing references to the GPL does not remove the GPL licensing. Your patch would not change anything about the licensing of linux (unless you also get permission from all linux contributors to do that).

I love the idea of free software but damn it, it's my computer and my video card and I am the one who is loading the drivers and it is me who should get to decide what drivers I can use on my computer.

The GPL gives you the right to do whatever you want on YOUR computer, so why are you complaining about it? (The GPL only restrict distribution, not use.)

And then there are the "GPL" drivers that were written using documentation that can only be viewed after signing an NDA. Honestly I don't see how you can call this "free software", it might as well be a binary blob because even the source code is just a binary blob without that documentation. For another example I can provide the areca driver which was written by an areca engineer with access to documents that nobody else can get even with an NDA. "Free Software" hah!

I agree that NDA'ed documentation can become a problem if later invasive changes are needed to a driver, but that also depends on how well-documented & well-structured the source code is.

And then there is the matter of drawing a distinction between devices that require firmware loaded versus those which carry their firmware internally. Hey the engineers are being clever by allowing the firmware to be upgraded but oh no, they get a bitch slap from Linus for being intelligent.

I can't recall Linus complaining about that (actualy the opposite). Still, open source firmwares would be an advantage too (especially as lots of firmwares are broken and need workarounds in the drivers).