You'll be hearing more about this
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| Libervis Mar 02, 2007 3:14 PM EDT |
It can't be emphasized enough. It really can't. I am surprised why more people in the GNU/Linux community aren't talking about this these days. Pre-installing GNU/Linux on PCs of major vendors is THE KEY to eventual world prevalence. The best solution would be to get companies like Dell start making computers with hardware fully supported by free drivers on GNU/Linux (not proprietary stuff) so that they can basically offer 100% Free OS on a hardware that works perfectly with it. I think the point people may easily miss about this strategy is that if big vendors start selling PCs adapted to 100% Free OS support, they will end up alienating makers of graphics cards and other hardware for which they haven't released free drivers yet. This means that as people start buying GNU/Linux PCs more and more, companies like Nvidia will be missing the cake more and more. The only way they can take a piece of the action is to release free drivers so that PC vendors can include them in their GNU/Linux PCs. This way, we create a situation in which it pays to offer free drivers, in which it pays to serve software freedom. Don't you see? We don't need compromises like Ubuntu is advocating. We don't need CNR supported by sales of proprietary software. We just need to convince PC vendors to sell PCs adapted to 100% Free GNU/Linux! This means that Eric Raymond and Landley with their World Domination 201 paper were WRONG about saying that compromise is the only way to world domination. It is in fact just the opposite. Stay the course! FSF is damn right to be so unwavering. In the end it will probably bring better results, faster, for the domination of not only a yet another OS, but of freedom. And yes, I have just paraphrazed the follow up to my latest article: http://www.libervis.com/article/ubuntu_cnr_com_and_world_dom... Stay tuned for the full version to appear soon enough in LXer newswire! ;) Of course, your feedback below can help the followup be even better, so don't hesitate to discuss this below. The article will be about the startegy for world domination, *without compromise* of software freedom. Yes sir! |
| Sander_Marechal Mar 02, 2007 3:29 PM EDT |
Quoting:companies like Nvidia will be missing the cake more and more They will feel some heat, but not as much as you think. That's because video cards are pretty much the *only* component left that have no free alternative available, while they all do somewhat work with free drivers (just no 3D). This means that people will either buy the high-end card and use non-free drivers, or go for the cheapest graphics available because they'll be running no 3D anyway. The latter being a roughly equal mix of on-board Intel and the low-end $35 Nvidia/ATI cards. Nvidia/ATI will loose some high-end card sales but that's all. It's not like for example the wireless card market where an OEM can simply ditch the productline of the non-free company and sell the functional equivalent from the free company instead. It's not until Intell gets back into the discrete graphics business that Nvidia and ATI need to worry. |
| Libervis Mar 02, 2007 3:39 PM EDT |
Actually, a lot of the ATI's cards, even some recent ones (only not the latest ones) work both in 2D and 3D without problems. Again, I have to say, I own a card that costed me about $120, ATI Radeon 9600XT and it works like a charm with a free DRI driver. At the same time, Nvidia cards don't have anything near that support. So ATI may not feel much of the heat because vendors would still be building in their "almost-new" cards. However, as long as the Noveau project isn't churning out as functional drivers as the R200/300 projects, Nvidia may feel the drop. Why would people buy an extra Nvidia card after getting a PC with an already built in ATI card which already works with 3D out of the box? |
| Sander_Marechal Mar 02, 2007 4:38 PM EDT |
They wouldn't. But for systems that do not come with built-in ATI they'd choose the cheapest option to get 2D support. Whether that's a mobo upgrade to get embedded or a cheap stand-alone card would depend on the hardware prices of the day. |
| Libervis Mar 02, 2007 4:47 PM EDT |
Mobo upgrade or a cheap card doesn't necessarily have to contain anything from Nvidia. :) |
| Sander_Marechal Mar 04, 2007 2:34 PM EDT |
No, but it also doesn't mean that it won't be an Nvidia, because a cheap card with the free 2D drivers work as well. And that's just the thing in the video card market. All brands can work 2D with free drivers. No brand does high-end 3D with free drivers (on-board Intel doesn't count as high-end in my book). So it's not possible to bully one brand into providing free drivers by threatening to go to a competing brand. This *is* possible with every other kind of hardware found in computers. |
| dinotrac Mar 05, 2007 4:28 AM EDT |
>All brands can work 2D with free drivers. And much of what non-gamers do, including video and quite a bit of graphics, is 2D work. |
| tuxtom Mar 05, 2007 4:37 PM EDT |
Tuxracer is no game, my friend, it embodies the soul of Linux. Other than that I can get by with 2D. |
| Bob_Robertson Mar 05, 2007 9:11 PM EDT |
LinuxBIOS and the Open Graphics Project sound good together. |
| swbrown Mar 05, 2007 9:13 PM EDT |
I wish this MB could run LinuxBIOS - the boot time just in BIOS is totally insane, takes maybe 2 minutes. |
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