Building a Linux GPU Driver for the M4 Mac Mini in One Month • Hacker News Board

Re: Building a Linux GPU Driver for the M4 Mac Mini in One Month

#291

Post by giancarlostoro » Thu, Sep 17, 2026, 12:41 PM UTC

Danox wrote: post #206

giancarlostoro wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The LLM use wasnt the part that bothered me so much, but having had an Apple contract is bad.

Who is getting really excited about the achievement and then you read that at the end it’s just slop, and the guy who achieved it was acting smug and you find out he’s a former Apple employee oh well, he ain’t Alyssa…

Well, I've been in reverse engineering circles since 2007... Including Apple related ones, I don't have any issue with AI being used to clean-room a reverse engineering session, but by virtue of having been a former employee in any capacity, your code is a massive liability. I wouldn't take his code, ever, unless Apple literally hand signed by their highest layer and CEO that his code was okay for me to use for my OS or something like that, which would never happen.

Re: Building a Linux GPU Driver for the M4 Mac Mini in One Month

#292

Post by otterley » Thu, Sep 17, 2026, 2:47 PM UTC

ndriscoll wrote: post #290

otterley wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What if I, the owner of Standard Oil, don't want my oil in inferior cars? That makes no sense, either as a hypothetical or a historical reference. > Programmable hardware and software are obviously always severable. This is not up for debate, but is a basic fact. That's a fact you made up that sounds "truthy". It's an opinion. You're entitled to your opinion, but you're not entitled to make up your own facts. And y…

It's literally not a statement of opinion. It's a factual statement about how computers work. And yeah people hack their appliances all the time. Car modders replace all sorts of things; I don't see why they wouldn't touch software (in fact I already gave an example of an obvious piece of control software to mod: locked down seat heaters). Airplanes have a unique regulatory environment where "consumer" protection is…

> when I buy a computer, I own the computer, not a limited license to use it.

You own the hardware portion of the computer. You do not own the software portion. Look, if you don't believe me (IAAL who studied this in detail), ask your own attorney. If they tell you different, give me their contact info. :-)

> And I absolutely can install other software on it if I please.

You might be able to do that, mechanically speaking, but the vendor is under no obligation to help you either install it or make it work (safely, or even at all).

Re: Building a Linux GPU Driver for the M4 Mac Mini in One Month

#293

Post by ndriscoll » Thu, Sep 17, 2026, 3:24 PM UTC

otterley wrote: post #292

ndriscoll wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's literally not a statement of opinion. It's a factual statement about how computers work. And yeah people hack their appliances all the time. Car modders replace all sorts of things; I don't see why they wouldn't touch software (in fact I already gave an example of an obvious piece of control software to mod: locked down seat heaters). Airplanes have a unique regulatory environment where "consumer" protection is…

> when I buy a computer, I own the computer, not a limited license to use it. You own the hardware portion of the computer. You do not own the software portion. Look, if you don't believe me (IAAL who studied this in detail), ask your own attorney. If they tell you different, give me their contact info. :-) > And I absolutely can install other software on it if I please. You might be able to do that, mechanically spe…

Yes, this is why I say we should abolish software copyright, and the vendor should have an obligation to provide their source code, and it should be illegal to use technological measures to try to stop you from making it work (e.g. firmware signature checks). Basically the Free Software definition should be made law. I wouldn't have had to say I support changing the law if it were already correct.