Fwd: AMD deciding _now_ what to do about Linux

[Wilko Bulte]

On Sat, Jun 16, 2007 at 10:33:00AM +0100, Dieter wrote..
> So who, exactly, is the best person to write to requesting
> docs for AMD/ATI graphics/video chips?
> 
> We need to politely inform them that
> 
> 	There are a lot of operating systems out there,
> 	and they all need high quality, fully functional drivers.
> 	FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Plan-9, Open-Solaris, ...
> 
> 	We might want to add a ATI graphics/video card to a computer
> 	with a different CPU architecture (Alpha, Sparc, PPC, ...)
> 
> 	Binary drivers are useless, because:
> 		Too many OSes.
> 		Too many CPU archs.
> 		Can't fix bugs.
> 		Can't fix security holes.
> 	Therefore we need documentation on how to program the chips.
> 
> 	2D is not enough.  We need video decoding and 3D.
> 
> 	If we can't have high quality, fully functional source code drivers
> 	for the OS and CPU arch of our choice, then there is no reason to
> 	buy the product.
> 
> Have I left out anything?

Well.. yes.  "How much revenue ($$) AMD will loose when these open
source projects do not get the chip docs".

Ultimately the $$ question is what exec level management will ask.

-- 
Wilko Bulte				wilko at FreeBSD.org