Linux in a binary world... a doomsday scenario [LWN.net]

Linux in a binary world... a doomsday scenario

Posted Dec 8, 2005 16:05 UTC (Thu) by fenrus (guest, #31654)
In reply to: Linux in a binary world... a doomsday scenario by NRArnot
Parent article: Linux in a binary world... a doomsday scenario

and then what?

if/when most of the binary modules are only available for RHEL or SLES, does it really matter that there's an escrow thing? NVidia and ATI are special in a way because they go through the trouble of making a special glue layer. Most others actually don't bother, and don't want to bother with a community with 15 different compilers and distros, and only do RHEL and SLES as a result.

And the NVidia *is* holding the kernel back already to some degree; several changes get blocked either directly because they break the current nvidia, or from fear to get dozens of hate mails from nvidia users..

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Linux in a binary world... a doomsday scenario

Posted Dec 9, 2005 13:50 UTC (Fri) by bockman (guest, #3650) [Link]

NVidia and ATI are special in a way because they go through the trouble of making a special glue layer.

Maybe this should be unofficially indicated as the second best choice after releasing the full code. It allows kernel developers not to be API-bounded and allows hardware vendors to hide their supposedly-valuable IP in the binary blob. Meanwhile, the 'open' external layer allows third parties to fix things when the kernel API changes and/or the vendor drops support for the hardware.

I know that this still is not free software, and I am not saying that the external layers of such drivers should be part of official kernels. But at least, if most vendors would adopt this approach, things would be slightly better.

Ciao
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FB