New ATI Driver - they can't

[manchicken]

On Saturday 21 July 2007 06:27:28 Dexter Filmore wrote:
> On Friday 20 July 2007 16:02:05 manchicken wrote:
> > On Friday 20 July 2007 06:18:28 Dotan Cohen wrote:
> > [snip]
> >
> > > As right as you are, _any_ improvements in official Linux support from
> > > major manufacturers such as ATI/AMD is a step in the right direction.
> > > It will set precedent to the smaller manufacturers.
> >
> > Except that it's not the smaller manufacturers that are a problem.  It is
> > particularly the large manufacturers that are the problem.  They use
> > their market share to marginalize and exclude those who are contrary to
> > their goals or are simply less profitable.  THAT is what the problem is. 
> > It's not that they can't, it's that they won't, and they never will until
>
> Umm, they actually can't. The OpenGL implementation in (at least) NVidia
> cards are intellectual property bought from SGI. But not only NV (and
> possibly ATi) bought rights that, so did Microsoft.
> So to provide open src drivers NV (+ATi?) would have to give away code to
> NDA IP. Not gonna happen.

Really?  So it would be a violation of some IP agreement for them to go to SGI 
and tell them what they're trying to do, or it would be an infringement for 
them to release all but the OpenGL implementation, or it would be an 
infringement for them to put out a press release informing the Free Software 
community that they will back off of their previous positions and not take 
legal action against those trying to roll their own drivers?  I doubt it.

-- 
~ manchicken <><
(A)bort, (R)etry, (I)nfluence with large hammer.
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