A bit late [LWN.net]

A bit late

Posted Sep 10, 2010 0:44 UTC (Fri) by kragil (subscriber, #34373)
In reply to: A bit late by jspaleta
Parent article: Broadcom releases an open-source driver for its wireless chipsets

It would be amazing if it were true (I don't know).

The problem is that the only major thing where closed drivers rule is ARM graphics and for this argument to work someone has to move to have the first mover advantage so that others can loose.
Thing is in the ARM graphics market there is no first mover. All drivers are closed and will probably stay that way. When nobody sees declining numbers it will be hard to convince ARM SOC manufacturers to demand FOSS drivers. Damn you chicken, damn you egg.
Let's hope the Linaro guys read this and come to the right conclusion. IMO ARM is hands down the most important arch for Linux.

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A bit late

Posted Sep 10, 2010 9:02 UTC (Fri) by bangert (subscriber, #28342) [Link]

yeah - but we'll get there too. you'll see ;-)

A bit late

Posted Sep 10, 2010 17:27 UTC (Fri) by robert_s (subscriber, #42402) [Link]

"The problem is that the only major thing where closed drivers rule is ARM graphics and for this argument to work someone has to move to have the first mover advantage so that others can loose."

"Let's hope the Linaro guys read this and come to the right conclusion. IMO ARM is hands down the most important arch for Linux."

The chief player in Linario being ARM and ARM having their own "Mali" GPU, it would make a lot of sense for ARM to get the ball rolling themselves by releasing specifications / helping to develop an open driver for Mali.