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Re: [LUG] Ubuntu and freedom?

 

On Thu, 07 Dec 2006 00:34:13 +0000
Colin <colin.james@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> While it will be nice to have everything working immediatley I am
> annoyed about this. Why would Nvidia ever open source their drivers now?

NVidia can still be persuaded, depending on sales of their hardware.
Nothing matters more to non-free providers than profit.

> The Ubuntu team have shown people will just give in and accept them as
> they are.

To be fair to Ubuntu, other distributions have done this already -
Linspire and Xandros come to mind. What is different with Ubuntu is the
popularity of Ubuntu compared to previous attempts.

> I wish one of the kernel dev would assign copyright to the FSF
> because maybe they would then have the balls to sue Nvidia for breaching
> the GPL.

Check /usr/include/linux/ - there is FSF code in there.

NVidia aren't necessarily breaching the GPL - if anyone is breaching
it, it is Ubuntu! NVidia simply release their code under their licence.
The breach, if any, comes when that code is integrated with GPL code
and the modified work distributed.

Only if the nvidia code *includes* GPL code directly could nvidia be
claimed to be breaching the GPL.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nv_swlicense.html

There is a clear exception there for GNU/Linux users but the licence is
still non-free - there is no right to the source code.

Ubuntu does indicate that the original nvidia drivers are non-free:
The NVIDIA drivers are in the "restricted" section of the Ubuntu
package repository, so before you will be able to install the drivers,
you must enable this section on your system.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia

Just like Debian with non-free, Ubuntu allow the user to choose the
"restricted" (maybe better to say restrictive) section.
http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/nvidia-glx

This emphasises that the decision to use non-free code is an individual,
political, act.

There is free software support for nvidia cards:
http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/xserver-xorg-video-nv
This driver for the X.Org X server (see xserver-xorg for a further
description) provides support for NVIDIA Riva, TNT, GeForce, and Quadro
cards.

This (or a close equivalent free software package) is the default
driver chosen on installation on a system using an nvidia card or
chipset.

--


Neil Williams
=============
http://www.data-freedom.org/
http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/
http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/

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