Invitation to ubuntu developers

[Ulrik Mikaelsson]

I certainly would think the hardware manufacturer cares about Linux,
and will start to care even more. Think of the millions of
workstations in some European governments, U.S. states, and some
companies currently undergoing, or about to undergo Windows-to-Linux
migrations as a result of decisions involving questionable license
fees, or fair-play competition, or usually both.

If I were running AMD or Nvidia, I'd be pretty interested in beating
Intel in delivering the low-end chips to all those machines, meaning
they're probably a lot more eager than they admit to get the
"linux-approved" stamp on their butts.

Ubuntu can affect that process, and while excluding binary drivers
completely will only make Linux look bad. Treading lightly, focusing
on educating the users and decision-makers we can make ATI/Nvidia look
bad. (Or Atheros, or whomever producing hardware that require
proprietary drivers.)

Regards
/ Ulrik

On 11/27/06, Bryan Haskins <kingofallhearts999 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Think of it this way... is the message of not including them any better to
> the hardware manufacturers? You think they care if linux users use their
> drivers? Hell no. In their eyes the only money maker is Windows and MacOS
> they have no reason to care about us yet. And as far as the user goes... the
> ides is to inform them as we go. If their a new user Open source Versus
> Proprietary is the last thing on their mind. The word around is AMD is
> considering releasing a very basic open source driver for ATis, basic as in
> really free of all the fun stuff they are worried about opening up. If they
> did this we could fill in the blanks. That's string speculation, as in it's
> really believable.
>
> On 11/26/06, John Nilsson <john at milsson.nu> wrote:
> > On Sun, 2006-11-26 at 10:22 -0500, Bryan Haskins wrote:
> > > I say if it means saving a newb 3 days of trying to get things
> > > working, by having it packaged, and ready to go, with the general
> > > support install time programs receive, I ask you all, where is the
> > > harm, in saving a new user a little time.
> >
> > The harm is in the message it sends to Nvidia and ATI. It's a clear
> > message that says, "ok don't worry guys we will take your proprietary
> > driver and do the work necessary to make them work for our users. Don't
> > you worry about open sourcing and all that." But the worst thing is that
> > the same message will go to every one else. "Don't worry about open
> > source, proprietary will do."
> >
> > What we want is a situation where Intel, OGP or other hardware with open
> > source efforts "works out of the box", but where proprietary stuff is
> > just a little more hassle. We want AMD and Nvidia to loose customers
> > because of not having open source drivers.
> >
> > Unless you guys hasn't noticed yet: Linux is making an impact. These
> > companies WANT to support Linux (neither ATI or Nvidia spends resources
> > on their Linux drivers for pure egalitarian reasons, they actually see
> > profit in it). We have the leverage to put pressure on them.
> >
> > Regards,
> > John
> >
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>
>
> --
> Cheers,
> Bryan
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