New GUI for Linux Depends on Open Video Drivers - ATI and Nvidia Refuse Open Standards
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ATI and Nvidia Refuse Open Standards
There is one problem with XGL graphics that is causing arguments in the Linux community, though the debate is hardly new. It is the conflict between Linux distributions being purely open source or else allowing selected closed source modules into the mix.
The new graphics demand more hardware acceleration, and they use video hardware to get it. While there are rudimentary open source drivers, the OpenGL video drivers that Linux programmers need to use are proprietary. Both ATI and Nvidia are refusing to release fully functional open source drivers, which puts them at odds with Linux operating systems. This sets off alarms for purists at the Free Software Foundation, for whom closed drivers in an open source environment is a matter of ethics.
ATI says that the drivers it releases on Windows cannot be available as open source because they contain licensed technology. By law, they have to keep those drivers closed to protect intellectual property. Nvidia has said they don’t even see a reason that the drivers need to be open source. These video drivers are too complex for the open source community to need to edit, and seeing the nuts and bolts won’t make matters any more stable.
Linux programmers, of course, see it differently. Closed drivers mean that they cannot support the entirety of the operating system. As one example, Red Hat generally avoids supporting closed drivers.
Proprietary drivers raise ethical concerns and doomsday fears for Linux purists. And for the open source programmers to reverse-engineer how the 3D drivers work and find a way to implement the same functionality would be a lot of extra work. It would waste a lot of time if Nvidia or ATI couldn’t just use open standards.
The two sides seem unable to compromise. Without more hardware support, XGL is not possible. Without XGL, Linux does not get all the special effects that other operating systems are picking up, and they lose out on finding potential advantages in using video hardware more fully.
So why would open source advocates choose to reject Nvidia’s and ATI’s drivers when there is definitely something to gain from them? They think it could spell doomsday for Linux.
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