From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1030289AbVLFX0S (ORCPT ); Tue, 6 Dec 2005 18:26:18 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1030291AbVLFX0R (ORCPT ); Tue, 6 Dec 2005 18:26:17 -0500 Received: from ns.firmix.at ([62.141.48.66]:4256 "EHLO ns.firmix.at") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1030289AbVLFX0Q (ORCPT ); Tue, 6 Dec 2005 18:26:16 -0500 Subject: Re: Linux in a binary world... a doomsday scenario From: Bernd Petrovitsch To: Dave Jones Cc: =?iso-8859-2?Q?Pawe=B3?= Sikora , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In-Reply-To: <20051206202902.GC17108@redhat.com> References: <1133779953.9356.9.camel@laptopd505.fenrus.org> <200512061649.14470.pluto@agmk.net> <20051206190051.GA4232@irc.pl> <200512062011.55234.pluto@agmk.net> <20051206202902.GC17108@redhat.com> Content-Type: text/plain Organization: http://www.firmix.at/ Date: Wed, 07 Dec 2005 00:25:52 +0100 Message-Id: <1133911552.3299.37.camel@gimli.at.home> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.2.3 (2.2.3-2.fc4) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Tue, 2005-12-06 at 15:29 -0500, Dave Jones wrote: [...] > Indeed, anything newer than a G550 is binary only as far as 3D is concerned. > Sad, as Matrox used to be a really good recommendation for an > opensource friendly graphic card vendor. > > It's not as if their newer cards are even that fast, so my only > guess is that they've gone the binary blob route purely for > paranoia reasons. Yes, the "software as such patent" and/or "trivial patent" disease spreaded the last decades - not only in USPTO-land (and identically in JPO-land) but also basically illegally in EPO-land. And it is probably much simpler to "prove" (in the law sense, not technically/mathematically) a patent infringement if you have C source of the driver instead of some undocumented blob of object code. Bernd -- Firmix Software GmbH http://www.firmix.at/ mobil: +43 664 4416156 fax: +43 1 7890849-55 Embedded Linux Development and Services