OneAndOneIs2

Wed, May 23, 2007

Hit from all sides

Can't help but wonder how things are going in proprietary hardware manufacturer boardrooms lately.

Not long ago, they may have heard about the Linux kernel devs offering them official Linux drivers for free & under NDAs - a number of manufacturers have taken advantage of this offer, with at least one driver already having gone into the kernel as a result, and more on the way.

Then along came Dell, planning to sell Ubuntu PCs and therefore requiring hardware to at least have some Linux support. For hardware options not offered with this release, we are working with the vendors of those devices to improve the maturity and stability of their associated Linux drivers.

Even the stalwarts of the "You get open source drivers when you prise them out of our cold dead fingers" brigade are beginning to crumble - not long ago, you used proprietary drivers or you had little or no 3D acceleration. Now, of the big three graphics manufacturers, one already is open source and one has promised to be ASAP.

If you manufacture hardware and don't have it supported under Linux, even "Nobody else is doing it" isn't a valid excuse any more.

When things start to change, they do change fast, don't they?

6 comments • Categories: Omni, FOSS, Technology

Comments:

Comment from: hari [Member]

· http://hari.literaryforums.org

I don't know, but these days, I'm not so keen or excited on seeing these kinds of stories. Kind of got used to Linux working for me...

Permalink 23/05/07 @ 16:06

Comment from: oneandoneis2 [Member] · http://geekblog.oneandoneis2.org/

Yeah - in many ways it's similar to those pointless "Is Linux ready for the desktop?" debates - to which the answer is always "It's been good enough for MINE for years"

But there IS more to it than that. I'm still avidly waiting for the day when I can have a PC which runs nothing but open-source software: LinuxBIOS, open-source 3D acceleration, open-source WiFi, everything.

I'm sick of having computers that "mostly" work under Linux, or that only work when you shove a bunch of binary blobs onto them. So I do like to see stories like this, because it brings that computer just a little closer to being mine [Smiley]

Permalink 23/05/07 @ 16:25

Comment from: hari [Member]

· http://hari.literaryforums.org

I have a question. Why isn't there one good MIDI tracker app in Linux? I've tried all of them... none of them are good enough.

Permalink 23/05/07 @ 17:12

Comment from: oneandoneis2 [Member] · http://geekblog.oneandoneis2.org/

Because you haven't written it yet [Smiley]

I do seem to recall somebody mentioning MIDI hardware not being well supported by Linux either - maybe there aren't enough creative types using Linux yet?

Permalink 23/05/07 @ 17:32

Comment from: hari [Member]

· http://hari.literaryforums.org

I'm thinking of writing one... when I get the time and inclination :p

Permalink 24/05/07 @ 11:00

Comment from: John G [Visitor]

Frankly, FOSS drivers are good, and I say lets have more of them, but proprietary drivers that work are certainly welcome too. As for my box, I'd happily have forked over some ducats for drivers that worked. It was the age old ATI driver fiasco which I ultimately cured with a spanking new Nvidia card. But whichever, FOSS or not, things are turning our way, and as Martha would say, that's a good thing.

Permalink 24/05/07 @ 20:52