Re: releasing driver to kernel in source+binary format

From: Disconnect (lkml@sigkill.net)
Date: Thu Aug 23 2001 - 13:26:15 EST


On Thu, 23 Aug 2001, Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams did have cause to say:

>
> It's probably just easier to supply a non-GPLed binary-only driver. Realize,
> though, that if you have any sort of binary-only driver in any way, there are
> those who will a) refuse to buy or use your product(s), and b) persuade others
> to do the same.

And don't forget c) every single bug or problem report about any machine
with that driver will get sent to you - none of the developers and very
few of the others (especially on LKML) will touch it if the problem occurs
while that driver is loaded.

(For references, check the mail archives for issues from people w/ nvidia
cards - you'll see the occasional help request, followed by quite a lot of
"go talk to nvidia about it, its a binary driver so we can't help"...)

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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Aug 23 2001 - 21:01:00 EST