Questions drivers for VGA and NIC

[Robert Huff]

Da Rock writes:

>  I apologise for jumping into this thread mid way, but wouldn't
>  the problem be simply a case of nil NDA? If an FOSS programmer
>  signed an NDA with say NVidia, then wouldn't the hardware
>  supplier be more willing to supply more specific details?
>  
>  Anyone with experience in the legalities here?

	It's not just the legalities, it's the philosophy.
	Accepting the N.D.A. would allow the writing of a driver
... which would - based on what I know about siilar N.D.A.s - have
to be released as a binary.
	Now that could happen, and be a working solution; it's worked
for other products.  (Examples are left as an exercise for the
reader.)
	But it's the (rare) exception and not the rule for a reason.
Ignoring philosophical disagreements, it makes it harder to find and
fix problems.
	Case in point:
	FreeBSD supports Intel non-CPU hardware; in at least one case
(the /em/ network driver) Intel not only writes the code (for free)
but releases it under an appropriate license.  This gains Intel a
lot of cred.  (The fact that it's superior code on a superior card
doesn't hurt, nor does tha fact that the writer is available,
responsive, and friendly.)


					Robert Huff