On Thu, 27 Sep 2001, Peter Surda wrote: >> Sure, that is a valid point but we need to remember that in the past >> ATI has not been adverse to supporting open source drivers or to >> releasing specs to qualified people. > >They are very friendly actually. They provided me mach64 and r128 docs (under >NDA) within 24 hours after I registered with them (last week). Although I must >confess I've been recommended, it still shows that they are completely OK. I >don't see any problems on the communication level, perhaps now that less >people get paid for developing the drivers the pace will slow down, but not >stop. > >What developers can do is to recommend ATI cards to end-users, so there is >larger need for the drivers and larger chance someone would be willing to pay >for them.
I think your final comment here Peter really hits the nail on the head. In all honesty, *any* level of support for Linux from any hardware vendor - currently does not generate enough revenue to barely cover costs involved in developing the drivers. That may vary from vendor to vendor, but I'll bet it is more or less true. As such, if a vendor is going to support Linux at all - or more generally open source, everyone needs to be greatful to the companies that do provide the information needed to implement drivers - be it under strict NDA, minor NDA, or completely gratis no strings attached. And when I say NDA - I mean NDA that allows the resulting code to be released into XFree86, etc.. In general - for any vendor to allow a small but organized group of people access to information needed - who are well motivated, and proven capable of implementing drivers is fantastic. In order for a vendor to write drivers themselves, or fund development under contract - or even a 3rd party to fund such development, there needs to be some benefit to that vendor for supporting such an effort. If that happens, great! If a particular driver development does not get funded, it is entirely possible that whoever would be a potential funder of such - might not see a return on their investment. In other words. If any large group of people want any vendor to fund support for a given product, then support that company by buying their existing supported products, and be sure to mention that you are purchasing it for use in Linux. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike A. Harris Shipping/mailing address: OS Systems Engineer 190 Pittsburgh Ave., Sault Ste. Marie, XFree86 maintainer Ontario, Canada, P6C 5B3 Red Hat Inc. Phone: (705)949-2136 http://www.redhat.com ftp://people.redhat.com/mharris Red Hat XFree86 mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] General open IRC discussion: #xfree86 on irc.openprojects.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~# rm -f /bin/laden _______________________________________________ Dri-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dri-devel
