Re: Why is Nvidia given GPL'd code to use in non-free drivers?

Ian Molton
2003-01-05T22:24:10Z

On Sun, 5 Jan 2003 21:24:47 +0000 (UTC)
"Henning P. Schmiedehausen" <hps@intermeta.de> wrote:

> Without Microsoft, there wouldn't be 2,4 GHz 32/64 bit microcomputers
> with 512 megabytes of main memory, 120 gigabytes of hard disk space
> and 1600x1200 pixels 32 bit resolution

> Face it. Microsoft Software is, what made the breakthrough to really
> put a powerful machine in every home and allow the 2-5% of the owner
> base which are Linux users to get really cheap commodity hardware.

<rant>

BULLSHIT. it may have happened that way, but if M$ didnt do it it would
STILL have happened.

I was using 1600x1200 desktops on my Acorn RISC PC about a year, perhaps
2 years, before that sort of resolution was available on the majority of
PCs.

Before that I was using an ARM 2 and 3 based A410 which literally blew
away all desktops available at the time (286, 386) in terms of
performance.

Even today, My A410 can play a game of DOOM at nearly 486 speeds, in
truecolour!

This hardware had a british designed processor (ARM) and no INTEL or
such chips in sight. Windows never ran on it.

Yet my 15 year old A410/1 remains one of the most useful machines in my
house today, alongside an AthlonXP1800+ which, 15 years later, *STILL*
doesnt have a DTP solution thats as easy to use as Ovation Pro or
Impression Publisher were on the A410.

Only a week ago I used the A410 to draw a PCB layout for an audio
amplifier, using software which was supplied IN THE MACHINES ROM, along
with the OS.

I shall use the A410 to print the layout at 1200dpi onto transparent
film, too.

Not bad for free software on a 15 year old machine

Oh, and the same 15 year old machine can manage a (doublescanned)
1600x600 screenmode too, using dual ported RAM, at negligible speed
penalty.

So dont give me this crap that only M$ could provide the sub 500ukp PC
with bells and whitles.

All M$ have done is force us all to use turbocharged versions of a
jumped up washinmachine control microprocessor, and repeatedly upgrade
it to keep up.

No thanks.