Microsofts new way of bashing Linux

[Anders Karlsson]

On Fri, 2006-06-16 at 23:45 -0400, Lee Revell wrote:

[snip: loading drivers into kernel]

> If you're referring to Nvidia, their driver is probably legal because it
> uses the same binary blob as the Windows driver and thus cannot be a
> derivative work.

That is hardly a defence. That binary blob still gets loaded into kernel
space, whether it originates from Windows drivers or no.

Side-stepping the vipers nest of whether it is legal or not, there is a
good *technical* reason for why companies should release interface
specifications for their hardware. Closed source drivers puts the burden
on the hardware and driver manufacturer to deal with problems and makes
the kernel impossible (slight exaggeration, I know) to debug for the
kernel developers.

At a guess, some companies are reluctant to release source to their
closed drivers due to their appalling quality and/or comments in the
source that may land them in legal trouble.

-- 
Anders Karlsson <trudheim at gmail.com>

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