NVIDIA Releases Two OSS Driver Updates

[phoronix]

Phoronix: NVIDIA Releases Two OSS Driver Updates

We're still working on finding out more details on NVIDIA's open-source strategy, but in minor open-source news, there are two updates now available for the xf86-video-nv (a.k.a. "nv") driver...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=NjMwNA

[yoshi314]

nv is the worst possible approach to oss drivers - the code is obfuscated and useful only as an barely usable "documentation" for reverse engineering team.

is there anyone who finds this driver useful for daily use?

sorry for being so bitter, but it's really annoying that nvidia thinks it's good enough as an opensource solution.

[MighMoS]

Originally Posted by yoshi314

nv is the worst possible approach to oss drivers - the code is obfuscated and useful only as an barely usable "documentation" for reverse engineering team.

is there anyone who finds this driver useful for daily use?

sorry for being so bitter, but it's really annoying that nvidia thinks it's good enough as an opensource solution.

Despite the fact that they don't work too well, many people still do use nv. nVidia is a proprietary blob which is unacceptable for many people, but nouveau can be buggy or in some cases slower. Its not a happy place to be, but some people still do use nv. Its also the default driver for many distributions. nv IS stable, just not too good.

[_txf_]

What I think is appalling is that when someone offered to deobfuscate the driver he was turned down

[MighMoS]

Originally Posted by _txf_

What I think is appalling is that when someone offered to deobfuscate the driver he was turned down

...by the people who obfuscated the driver, if I'm not mistaken. There's nothing surprising there.

[_txf_]

No it's not surprising but if it's an open driver then it should be properly open otherwise its pretty much hypocrisy, considering it would take no effort on the part of the obfuscating party...

why the hell do they bother with the open driver

[Kano]

NV is in a better position than ATI, basically they could wait till the ATI oss driver get working 3d for all card and the binary driver is faster than the NV one if needed. If maybe 10000 ppl cry out for a driver it does not really matter compared to the millions of cards sold.

[_txf_]

If they wait for the oss ati drivers to mature then they are going to lose critical mass as developers move to ati cards, I doubt that they would release the source for their binary driver. Nvidia would therefore have to get people to work on the oss driver, but they cannot use their in-house devs as they would still be developing the binary driver.

The oss radeon drivers are still a long way from completion, but if nvidia intends to pursue a more active oss strategy they need to get the ball rolling early.