Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2007 23:30:06 +0200 From: Wilko Bulte <wb@freebie.xs4all.nl> To: Garrett Cooper <youshi10@u.washington.edu> Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, Dieter <freebsd@sopwith.solgatos.com>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Fwd: AMD deciding _now_ what to do about Linux Message-ID: <20070616213006.GA39721@freebie.xs4all.nl> In-Reply-To: <46745340.6090702@u.washington.edu> References: <200706161733.RAA14937@sopwith.solgatos.com> <20070616191714.GA38504@freebie.xs4all.nl> <46745340.6090702@u.washington.edu>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Sat, Jun 16, 2007 at 02:16:48PM -0700, Garrett Cooper wrote.. > Wilko Bulte wrote: > >On Sat, Jun 16, 2007 at 10:33:00AM +0100, Dieter wrote.. > > > >>So who, exactly, is the best person to write to requesting > >>docs for AMD/ATI graphics/video chips? > >> > >>We need to politely inform them that > >> > >> There are a lot of operating systems out there, > >> and they all need high quality, fully functional drivers. > >> FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Plan-9, Open-Solaris, ... > >> > >> We might want to add a ATI graphics/video card to a computer > >> with a different CPU architecture (Alpha, Sparc, PPC, ...) > >> > >> Binary drivers are useless, because: > >> Too many OSes. > >> Too many CPU archs. > >> Can't fix bugs. > >> Can't fix security holes. > >> Therefore we need documentation on how to program the chips. > >> > >> 2D is not enough. We need video decoding and 3D. > >> > >> If we can't have high quality, fully functional source code drivers > >> for the OS and CPU arch of our choice, then there is no reason to > >> buy the product. > >> > >>Have I left out anything? > >> > > > >Well.. yes. "How much revenue ($$) AMD will loose when these open > >source projects do not get the chip docs". > > > >Ultimately the $$ question is what exec level management will ask. > > > > > Countering the above statements (the following are important I would not call that countering, I think we agree? > questions to answer, and should be done by their business types with > more hard data): > How much money will AMD lose on competitive edge versus market > segment share for the particular open source customer base? And is that enough to be noticable in the grander (MS-Windows) scheme of things> > How much of the ATI drivers will they have to modify in order to > ensure that they remain IP protected and the extremely proprietary > sections don't get put out in the open by accident? The outcome might even be that this is not worthwhile for them.. (blackest possible outcome, I agree). > -Garrett -- Wilko Bulte wilko@FreeBSD.org
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20070616213006.GA39721>