Re: Why is Nvidia given GPL'd code to use in closed source drivers?

Henning P. Schmiedehausen
2003-01-02T08:42:40Z

Erik Andersen <andersen@codepoet.org> writes:

>Ahh, but replicated effort is something that open source people
>do very well at indeed. If nvidia provided non-functional GPL
>source code with all the proprietary 3rd party bits ripped out,
>I would expect a hoard of developers would jump at the chance to
>fixup the non-functional mess, clean it up, reimplement all the
>missing proprietary bits. I'd bet you $20 US we could have a
>functional driver within 2 weeks. And have a high quality driver
>roughly equal to their proprietary one within 6 months. Thats
>the way things work around these parts of the net. I bought a

Ahhh, yes. I know. Replace "nvidia" with "netscape" and "driver" with
"browser" and reread your paragraph. I remember having read exactly
the same thing when netscape told us that they will "open the source
to the navigator".

And where were we six months later?

Regards
Henning

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