Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2004 21:22:40 +0100 From: Michael Nottebrock <michaelnottebrock@gmx.net> To: busta@33rpm.biz Cc: Fredrik Eriksson <freebsd-stable@omnib.org> Subject: Re: the best graphicscard for FreeBSD Message-ID: <41A63F10.2080805@gmx.net> In-Reply-To: <1101411381.568.1.camel@grass.dyndns.org> References: <51611.192.168.0.200.1101398532.squirrel@192.168.0.200> <200411251706.22229.mark@markdnet.demon.co.uk> <1101405168.99948.43.camel@zircon.zircon.seattle.wa.us> <200411251807.47294.mark@markdnet.demon.co.uk> <20041125194327.C5321@bigtower.net> <1101411381.568.1.camel@grass.dyndns.org>
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alex bustamante wrote:
> How many manufactures release their drivers in open source? Does Matrox
> do it?
No. In fact, Matrox was one of the pioneers in the concept of binary-only
driver stubs with open-source interfaces (Matrox calls it HAL/hallib), which
is now a pretty common way of providing closed source drivers for open source
operating systems.
Getting complete open-source drivers for consumer hardware in highly
competitive markets is more or less a question of good relations between
open-source developers (or their employers) and hardware manufacturers - the
money Joe Users spend on hardware for their FreeBSD PCs does not influence the
support politics of manufacturers one bit.
The ati drivers with hardware 3d acceleration support which are found in
XFree86/Xorg (userland part) FreeBSD/Linux (kernel DRI support) show that
complete open source support can happen, but also are nice examples how such
support can be very quickly discontinued once the market takes a turn.
--
,_, | Michael Nottebrock | lofi@freebsd.org
(/^ ^\) | FreeBSD - The Power to Serve | http://www.freebsd.org
\u/ | K Desktop Environment on FreeBSD | http://freebsd.kde.org
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