On Wednesday 18 October 2006 16:56, ICMan wrote: > I have read this thread, and I don't get it. Doesn't it benefit card > companies to have open source communities making their drivers > better?
You're looking at it all wrong.. making drivers implies putting out docs. Docs will describe the actual hardware as well, maybe go a little into electronics too. Do you know how buggy the actual hardware is? Do you know how many chips with _experimental_ hardware NVIDIA has put on the market? For example a hole series of graphic cards were released that implemented a big set of 3D functions. The specifications didn't mention anything about it. But they were there, ready for you to enable them if you knew the magic combo... I'm guessing the main restrain (as far as docs are implied) are the design flaws found in their hardware. This can destroy a reputation faster than a "minor" exploit that people don't really care about because "It could never affect me, what are the chances? By the way have you seen my l33t XGL configuration?!?!"
