From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Oct 2 14:11:37 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 95FDA1065686 for ; Thu, 2 Oct 2008 14:11:37 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from roberthuff@rcn.com) Received: from smtp02.lnh.mail.rcn.net (smtp02.lnh.mail.rcn.net [207.172.157.102]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 47BD78FC21 for ; Thu, 2 Oct 2008 14:11:36 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from roberthuff@rcn.com) Received: from mr02.lnh.mail.rcn.net ([207.172.157.22]) by smtp02.lnh.mail.rcn.net with ESMTP; 02 Oct 2008 10:11:36 -0400 Received: from smtp01.lnh.mail.rcn.net (smtp01.lnh.mail.rcn.net [207.172.4.11]) by mr02.lnh.mail.rcn.net (MOS 3.8.6-GA) with ESMTP id PCO98260; Thu, 2 Oct 2008 10:11:35 -0400 (EDT) Received: from 209-6-22-188.c3-0.smr-ubr1.sbo-smr.ma.cable.rcn.com (HELO jerusalem.litteratus.org.litteratus.org) ([209.6.22.188]) by smtp01.lnh.mail.rcn.net with ESMTP; 02 Oct 2008 10:11:33 -0400 From: Robert Huff MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <18660.54932.394443.382443@jerusalem.litteratus.org> Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2008 10:11:32 -0400 To: Da Rock In-Reply-To: <1222951733.3927.27.camel@laptop1.herveybayaustralia.com.au> References: <20081001232502.G56202@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> <20081001180424.56e6ca69@scorpio> <200810011436.27018.lists@rhavenn.net> <20081002072622.0284a05d@scorpio> <1222951733.3927.27.camel@laptop1.herveybayaustralia.com.au> X-Mailer: VM 7.17 under 21.5 (beta28) "fuki" XEmacs Lucid X-Junkmail-Whitelist: YES (by domain whitelist at mr02.lnh.mail.rcn.net) Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Questions drivers for VGA and NIC X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:11:37 -0000 Da Rock writes: > I apologise for jumping into this thread mid way, but wouldn't > the problem be simply a case of nil NDA? If an FOSS programmer > signed an NDA with say NVidia, then wouldn't the hardware > supplier be more willing to supply more specific details? > > Anyone with experience in the legalities here? It's not just the legalities, it's the philosophy. Accepting the N.D.A. would allow the writing of a driver ... which would - based on what I know about siilar N.D.A.s - have to be released as a binary. Now that could happen, and be a working solution; it's worked for other products. (Examples are left as an exercise for the reader.) But it's the (rare) exception and not the rule for a reason. Ignoring philosophical disagreements, it makes it harder to find and fix problems. Case in point: FreeBSD supports Intel non-CPU hardware; in at least one case (the /em/ network driver) Intel not only writes the code (for free) but releases it under an appropriate license. This gains Intel a lot of cred. (The fact that it's superior code on a superior card doesn't hurt, nor does tha fact that the writer is available, responsive, and friendly.) Robert Huff