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Linux-2.6.33-libre releasedLinux-2.6.33-libre releasedPosted Mar 1, 2010 17:55 UTC (Mon) by mrshiny (subscriber, #4266)Parent article: Linux-2.6.33-libre released
When they say "the hardware is a trap", I think many people would agree that it is a completely different problem than most "traps". If my network card has non-free firmware I can almost always replace it with hardware that has free firmware, if I care about that sort of thing. The important stuff, that is, the software I am running, doesn't usually care what brand of ethernet card I have.
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Linux-2.6.33-libre released Posted Mar 1, 2010 23:03 UTC (Mon) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]
It's a bit harder to do that with graphics cards. They *all* have heaps of
non-free firmware, as far as I know: at least they all need it if you want to get access to advanced features (and these days, 'advanced features' includes, er, accelerated 2D).
Linux-2.6.33-libre released Posted Mar 2, 2010 3:43 UTC (Tue) by mrshiny (subscriber, #4266) [Link]
That may be true (though I think we are finally making progress on that front). But I think my point still stands, which is that software is more and more insensitive to the specific hardware it runs on. My OpenGL games may not work unless I have the non-free nVidia driver loaded, but that is not due to being trapped by nVidia per se. Any driver that implements OpenGL can free me from that particular trap. (Maybe OpenGL itself is a trap? or 3D? It's a sad world if that is the case).
Linux-2.6.33-libre released Posted Mar 2, 2010 13:51 UTC (Tue) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]
Er, well, your driver needs to use the card's acceleration features if you don't want to die of boredom waiting for a couple of frames to draw. In practice, hardware support is mandatory for 3D at useful resolutions. That the hardware isn't documented is the trap.
Linux-2.6.33-libre released Posted Mar 2, 2010 16:19 UTC (Tue) by mrshiny (subscriber, #4266) [Link]
My driver needs to know the hardware, yes. But I am usually not trapped into a particular piece of hardware in the same way that Java, Javascript, .Net, Flash, etc, have been called traps by RMS in the past. If you have lots of software written in Java, and Java is not free, you are beholden to Sun to run that software. If I have a 3D app which uses OpenGL, and my nVidia driver is not free, I can buy an ATI instead and easily escape the trap. My app does not need to change.
nouveau and traps Posted Mar 2, 2010 18:25 UTC (Tue) by lxoliva (guest, #40702) [Link]
Before some people who do care wrote nouveau, the Free ctx_progs that make the cards support 3D, and the corresponding 3D drivers for X, you'd just be jumping from one trap to another.
nouveau and traps Posted Mar 2, 2010 18:37 UTC (Tue) by mrshiny (subscriber, #4266) [Link]
If I can leave the trap any time I want, and go to some other hardware which is not trapped (or which is a different trap) then by definition I am not trapped.
Consider a C++ compiler. If you are using the MS C++ compiler, you are relying on proprietary software, which harms the ozone layer and causes pain in small rodents. But you are not automatically "trapped" just because it is proprietary. If you stick to the C++ standard language you can always switch to a different compiler, such as G++. If you instead switch from MSVC to Borland C++ you are no more trapped than before, because the existence of GCC means you have an escape any time you want.
Similarly, if my software uses 3D, but does not use nVidia specific features, then I am not trapped. The nVidia driver is hardware specific, so it is, in a sense, trapped, but the user apps are not trapped. I can go to ATI or nouveau or the Intel 3D card or some other card, or even a software renderer, because my software is not relying on the specific hardware. It is not trapped.
Now, until recently there may not have been ANY 3D hardware that was blob-free. But in that case you might say that ALL 3D software is "trapped" and the trap is 3D itself. I think that's taking things a bit too far. But regardless, the app itself is not tied to a specific non-free bit of hardware.
Linux-2.6.33-libre released Posted Mar 3, 2010 12:51 UTC (Wed) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]
Er, ATI 3D hardware has non-free firmware, so that wouldn't escape the
trap.
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