On Mon, 18 Dec 2006 23:34:53 +0200, Hannu Savolainen wrote: > For a professional developer of any software the decision of open > sourcing it is not easy. "Just for fun" developers have no problems > because they don't expect to be able to live on their work anyway. > However a professional developer can release software under GPL only if > it's considered invaluable or if there is some way to guarantee > sufficient income. Releasing something under GPL without a guaranteed > backup plan is like jumping from an airplane without parasuit.
Except that we're talking about *hardware* companies here, not *software* companies. *Hardware* companies make money by selling *hardware*, not the software that drives it: in fact, they always distribute the 'software' they write (the drivers) for free (gratis). So while what you say is perfectly sensible for *software* developers, it has absolutely nothing to do with the closed source drivers *hardware* companies distribute. This all being said, I think that the only thing that can shake companies such as nVidia and ATI is a project such as the Open Graphics Card http://wiki.duskglow.com/tiki-index.php?page=Open-Graphics to succeed. -- Giuseppe "Oblomov" Bilotta Hic manebimus optime - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
