[OT] Re: [Fwd: Re: [ILUG] Help with nVidia drivers install FC2]

[Paul Jakma]

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004, Bryan O'Donoghue wrote:

Now we're definitely into troll territory.

Note that I made no judgements in previous emails about use of 
proprietary code. You've assumed that I'm criticising you for using 
the binary only NV driver, but I have not.

> And think of how much _better_ it would do that if you ran LinuxBIOS.

Agreed it would be.

> You mustn't have tried very hard (or at all) to upgrade your BIOS,

Snort. Actually, I do have a modified BIOS installed.

> to LinuxBIOS.. so, as you've so colourfully put it, I'm calling 
> bullshit here.

My computers run BIOS code maybe less than 1% of the time they're 
powered on. They boot Linux, that's it, well, one sometimes does APM 
suspend to disk. And yes, I'd much rather have an Open BIOS, cause 
they have bugs that cant be fixed easily, one machine wont boot from 
disk, cause it crashes for some stupid reason cause the disk is too 
large so I have to boot from a GRUB floppy, another sets up 
interrupts incorrectly and has screwed up ACPI.

I have been keeping on Ebay for a Tyan Guinness board to upgrade to, 
which run linuxbios.

> I think I'm honour bound by logic, not be lectured on my 
> open-source karma points, from an email which was typed using a 
> machine where each keystroke, has used a propiatery BIOS.

Well, the CPU in the machine I type on also probably once ran Windows 
(and FreeBSD), cause it was Liam's. It doesnt run it now though, no 
more than it is running BIOS code. So your point?

If PCs were reliant on the BIOS for common operation, I wouldnt be 
using a Pc.

> And more to the point... why haven't you gone to ebay/komplett and 
> bought a motherboard, which can be upgraded with LinuxBIOS... if 
> you feel *so* strongly about this issue?

LinuxBIOS support would be nice to have, and would be a potential 
factor in deciding what board to buy, amongst others. But even 
without LinuxBIOS: who cares, CPU calls BIOS, BIOS sets up a few 
things (often not correctly) and runs GRUB so I can boot linux. After 
that, I dont care..

> Or rather ... very interesting,  pot ... kettle.

I also have proprietary firmware on my mobile phone, my SCSI 
controller, my network cards, my scanner, my CDRW, my Athlon CPU has 
proprietary microcode wired into it. What's your point?

Again, I dont remember criticising you for using the binary nv 
driver, I just asked why, other than 3d support, use that instead of 
the (obfuscated) nv driver, or indeed buying hardware with actual 
open drivers.

regards,
-- 
Paul Jakma	paul at clubi.ie	paul at jakma.org	Key ID: 64A2FF6A
Fortune:
An artist should be fit for the best society and keep out of it.