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

Andre Hedrick
2003-01-04T07:38:17Z

On Sat, 4 Jan 2003, Mark Mielke wrote:

> On Sat, Jan 04, 2003 at 03:00:07AM -0300, Werner Almesberger wrote:
> > Shane R. Stixrud wrote:
> > > I see a possible future where software development is seen much like
> > > getting your roof repaired, or adding a new room on to your house.
> > > It's labor+materials.
> > Exactly. Whenever somebody figures out a way to make some work
> > process more efficient, invariably a group of people will predict
> > imminent doom if this model catches on, and they will have plenty
> > of compelling reasons why the old way is vastly superior.
>
> If only it were that simple. Instead, the roof repair man repairs one
> house, the fix is propagated to all other houses via the Internet, the
> roof repair man puts *himself* out of a job, and the only people that
> make money are the Internet service providers. The roof repair man
> starves to death and finally ends up on (un)employment insurance.

You mean like today with everyone in the great dot-bomb failure, because
giving it all way is what happened a few years back, and they are now
gone.

> Continually comparing software development to traditional forms of
> labour is misleading and evidence that the issue is *not* being
> properly understood. A closer comparison would be to compare the design
> of software to the design of a building. But then - architects don't
> give their blueprints away for free - that would be suicidal...

Careful, the arguement will shift to, this is a public building and thus
the blueprints will be placed in a public record, in time.

Please keep up the good work of teaching, I am impressed you have the
ability to not shread people after you have explained it six ways from
sunday and they still do not get it.

Cheers,

Andre Hedrick
LAD Storage Consulting Group