From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG  Mon Jul  3 03:37:13 2006
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG>
X-Original-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org
Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0742D16A49E
	for <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org>; Mon,  3 Jul 2006 03:37:13 +0000 (UTC)
	(envelope-from joseph.koshy@gmail.com)
Received: from ug-out-1314.google.com (ug-out-1314.google.com [66.249.92.172])
	by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BB18B43F4C
	for <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org>; Mon,  3 Jul 2006 03:12:43 +0000 (GMT)
	(envelope-from joseph.koshy@gmail.com)
Received: by ug-out-1314.google.com with SMTP id e2so813872ugf
	for <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org>; Sun, 02 Jul 2006 20:12:42 -0700 (PDT)
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com;
	h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references;
	b=LYqz9wnz/JZhYbeBjSGf/+/N/vVX5UcUQ7zTmcf4TWsPHd4T//yECXQPyj4Uxlqq5zSPLIbl47kXRJpYEKETJ3edso7RwIeNw8VhjuLvzWfLt2g44kn/Qq9jyMKnN3pn8ZZJHRWpcu3KclRiteajm4Xxd9C9v0h0+kWX6xdyMnE=
Received: by 10.78.97.7 with SMTP id u7mr722097hub;
	Sun, 02 Jul 2006 20:12:42 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.78.50.15 with HTTP; Sun, 2 Jul 2006 20:12:42 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <84dead720607022012g7a49ff81k3fa510c20737b6be@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2006 08:42:42 +0530
From: "Joseph Koshy" <joseph.koshy@gmail.com>
To: "Sam Smith" <S@msmith.net>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSO.4.64.0607022340500.2397@sebastian.foriru.co.uk>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline
References: <20060629111231.GA692@wolf.nvidia.com>
	<20060702114950.bf39e312.mmendez@energyhq.be>
	<1151877095.1085.19.camel@genius.i.cz>
	<Pine.BSO.4.64.0607022340500.2397@sebastian.foriru.co.uk>
Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, Michal Mertl <mime@traveller.cz>,
	Christian Zander <czander@nvidia.com>
Subject: Re: NVIDIA FreeBSD kernel feature requests
X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5
Precedence: list
List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD
	<freebsd-hackers.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-hackers-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-hackers-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers>,
	<mailto:freebsd-hackers-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 03 Jul 2006 03:37:13 -0000

> That's their commercial decision - as a result, if you
> their cards, you may end up with a particularly expensive
> paperweight the day they decide you need to buy a new card
> for your new version of freebsd which has different
> internals; or someone finds bugs in their drivers that
> they wont fix.

This is the relatively benign scenario.

In the less benign one that "convenient" binary driver that
you loaded into the kernel would contain a silent security
vulnerability.  Google for "Sony DRM rootkit".

> it's not like there aren't plenty of other
> vendors who are more willing to help the developers with
> documentation in an open manner.

True.

-- 
FreeBSD Volunteer,     http://people.freebsd.org/~jkoshy