Just Explain

Sunday 22 November 2009

Ubuntu has included firmware, and used proprietary drivers since its inception. That’s always been a slightly uncomfortable proposition, as Mako observed, but it’s been true since the Warty Warthog. Even Debian goes some way along that road with its inclusion of firmware and other non-free bits, suspending belief in the DFSG in this particular
case.

It’s worth pointing out that all of the applications that will be enabled by the AcceleratedX decision are free software applications – Compiz/Beryl and related work are all about showing what is possible at the cutting edge of free software. The hardware to run this is part of the very basic standard PC offering today, but the drivers to enable that functionality are tied deeply to hardware that is not publicly documented. The vendors concerned each have their own strategy – some open, such as Intel, and some closed, such as ATI and Nvidia.

So, it’s silly to say that this is “unimportant hardware functionality”.


Source : Here