DRI SITREP
August 27th, 2001 by CrusaderSlacker that I am, I just remembered this comment postbyMark B. Allen (author ofChromium B.S.U.) whichMatt Matthews pointed out to me a while back:
One thing of *extremely* important thing I learned at SIGGRAPH (fromBrian Paul) is that the DRI project no longer has *any* funding fromanyone. This means that DRI driver work is only being done in the freetime of DRI developers. This is a *very* bad situation. The already-slowdevelopment cycle of DRI drivers will get even slower, and we may notsee new ones at all.In my opinion, it is time for the community to put their money wheretheir mouth is. If people want open drivers, I believe they will need tostart paying for it. There’s a couple of ways that this couldpotentially work:
1. A donation site (unlikely to generate enough revenue, because peoplewill simply “forget” to pay)
2. Special, license restricted “extra functionality” drivers thatrequire payment, while basic drivers remain Free.Since learning about the DRI funding situation, I’ve been rolling thisaround in my head (even though I am more than happy w/ NVIDIA, it is toLinux’s advantage to have drivers for as many cards as possible, andthere are more than a few that believe strongly about the Open/Freeaspect of drivers). I’m not sure how it will work, or whether will bepossible to generate enough revenue to support the DRI developers.
It’s time for the community to start funding the DRI. I don’t have thetime (or really, the motivation) to try and put something together, buthopefully, someone else will make an attempt to get some money into thehands of the people who have the ability to write and maintain Opendrivers.
The Direct Rendering Infrastructure projectdevelops 3D graphics drivers for XFree86 4.x; DRI alsolost one of its core full-timedevelopers, Gareth Hughes, earlier this summer whenVA Linux cancelled his contract (although it looks likeGareth still contributes to the projectin his free time).
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
Ok, so I’ve got $30 here with some DRI developers name on it. Where’s the link to use to get it to them?
Doug
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
Put me down as one of those ‘few’ people who see the importance of open drivers.
You people seem to want Linux to relive the OSS disaster all over again. We didn’t get to where we are now with closed drivers.
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
Maybe the folks from the DRI project want to add themselves to the list?
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
Do you guys have any idea how much it would cost to fund DRI development? Do you really think $10k would get you anywhere? Maybe if you fund a person but not if you fund a company to do something.
- Daniel
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
Paypal…
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
The open source community should pay for improving
the products of commercial hardware vendors?
Are you crazy???
There is a very simple solution.
The videochip hardware vendors have to pay and fund the
dri project, it is THEIR task.
They have to make shure that drivers are available
and NO ONE ELSE! Point !
It is just so simple:
When a hardware vendor is not giving us drivers or support the development of one then i will not buy their product, point.
What can be simplier than that?
Boycott their products.
They EARN the money, they HAVE the money so it is their task
that drivers are available.
I am the customer, so i am the king, point.
And not the hardware vendor.
When hardware vendor A has no drivers for my OS i will
switch to hardware vendor B that has drivers.
When no hardware vendor has drivers, i will stay with my old
hardware and save my money.
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
Do manufactures require an NDA to be signed while the drivers are being
written, even if they’re OSS? With 3dfx, I’m fairly certain that the
h/w specs that were used for the creation of the drivers were kept
closed, while the drives were open.
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
As far as the eye’s of the media, (in the present day), Linux is a fairly dead fly. Companies pay attention to media. But that’s nothing, compared to the slow down in the world economy! And that slow down moved down the lines to the companies that fund’s the DRI project, and those funds needed to be cut.
But no matter the slow down, the power of Open Source is it’s greatness to be picked up when time and interest permits, whether now or later, (with disregards to funds altogether), DRI’ll be done. But who can _demand_ a person to give up his/her free time just to please all the whining goblins?
Linux, as far as I know, is not about demand! Although I could be wrong. :=)
cheers
Mj
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
test
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
Maybe RedHat, Mandrake and the other major distribution
companies should help fund developement of DRI.
If they sell Linux, which they do, it should be
important to them wether or not the video drivers
are being developed.
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
I think that freedom is important, and I do own a GeForce SDR card which is in need of replacement and when I do I would like free drivers to be avail. soo where do I send my money. Also I would like to contribute because others might need this.