Let the memes begin! Here's an image template of Linus giving the finger: https://skitch.com/cpinto/ebemj/linus
Here it is: http://memegenerator.net/Angry-Linus.
Aalto Talk with Linus Torvalds
121–130 of 147 posts
Re: Aalto Talk with Linus Torvalds
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've always harbored the hope that nVidia is working behind the scenes on a release that supports KMS/Wayland, and that the release of Optimus support will be released simultaneously. It makes sense when you consider that Optimus support is probably a pretty big change and putting that investment in the legacy X11 non-KMS driver would be a waste when KMS will be a requirement for all new distros in 2 years' time. It'…
> It's worth noting that just last night they released a stable driver that (finally) supports RandR 1.2 The XRandR support in the driver is not yet stable [1]. The 302.xx line is currently in beta, but will support both XRandR 1.2 & 1.3 at the same time. That part also works flawlessly, however, your mileage may vary in regards to suspend/hibernate, since both I and multiple others on the nvidia forums experience se…
Please see http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=2564605&p... ; as of June 16, 302.17 is classified as a "new official release" in the "Current NVIDIA Linux graphics driver releases" thread. 295.xx is now classified the "long-lived branch release".
ArchLinux has already sent out packages for this release in its stable update channel: https://projects.archlinux.org/svntogit/packages.git/commit/...
Re: Aalto Talk with Linus Torvalds
#123There is a bunch of hardware in the world that is inaccessible. I don't see this changing. Reasons include: Keeping competitors away from what you think are valuable secrets and maintaining an advantage. Keeping people away from features that, if misused, could result in chip damage. Keeping security holes secret (e.g., badly designed DMA hardware that could be exploited, if the flaws were known). Limiting access to…
Sure,
Some companies have a financial incentive to effective tell the open source movement to f-- off. Sure, when they take that, they may not be being evil on a grand scale. But hey, if they are telling linux to f-- off, it seems appropriate Linus return the favor. He's just making things clear.
Is there anything wrong that?
Re: Aalto Talk with Linus Torvalds
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually, there at least one Nvidia employee in the room. Have a look at the last question (asked by an Nvidia employee).
There were several Nvidia employees in the room, I wasn't one of them because I missed the sign-up for the event. But my co-workers were there and they got the message, and I hope the message propagates upwards to the people who make the big decisions on this. But Linus' message was a bit disheartening. Most of our crew would really like to open source everything we write. But then there's the fact that our code woul…
But then there's the fact that our code would reveal the secrets of our hardware.
To whom? Certainly not your competitors.
Also what's wrong with releasing specs under NDA?
Re: Aalto Talk with Linus Torvalds
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
The current moderation system isn't scaling. This post is a good example to illustrate the problem. At first glance it appears to be a flamebait title, and hence a mod who sees it may feel it's a no-brainer - correct it and move on. However, there's a nuance to it - that is exactly how Linus Torvalds expresses himself, and the original title ("Linus to Nvidia: Fuck You!", or something close to that) captured his sent…
> But on the other hand, the mod system has problems as well: > 1. Nobody even knows what the mod system is That is not a problem. This is excellent feature of a moderation system. Meta is death - really. I'm never going to make another meta post after this one. (Unless it's t help a new user.) > 2. Nobody knows who the mods are. Again, that's not a problem. It avoids turning moderating into character battles. A mod…
"Meta is death - really."
Metafilter solves this with http://metatalk.metafilter.com. Perhaps HN needs a dedicated place for meta discussion as well.
Re: Aalto Talk with Linus Torvalds
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
There were several Nvidia employees in the room, I wasn't one of them because I missed the sign-up for the event. But my co-workers were there and they got the message, and I hope the message propagates upwards to the people who make the big decisions on this. But Linus' message was a bit disheartening. Most of our crew would really like to open source everything we write. But then there's the fact that our code woul…
But then there's the fact that our code would reveal the secrets of our hardware. To whom? Certainly not your competitors. Also what's wrong with releasing specs under NDA?
How exactly do you NDA an opensource driver?
Re: Aalto Talk with Linus Torvalds
#127A few observations:
1. One of the highly distinctive characteristics of being a Free Software project leader is having the freedom to speak your mind. What Linus does (hacking the Linux kernel) and who pays him to do it (presently the Linux Foundation) are pretty loosely linked. The primary objective of LF is to fund Linux development, and Linus is pretty much the guy to get that done. If LF didn't pay him for it, someone else would. He can state his opionions on relevant technical matters with few if any fears of repercussions. I'm looking forward to next week's press releases from Nvidia.
2. Linus addresses what Nvidia are doing wrong at a few points, both directly and indirectly.
Around 15 minutes in he talks about what Free Software provides in the way of developer freedoms: you can focus on what you are interested in and what you are good at. In Linus's case, issues such as maintaining Linux-related websites, init, QA, and Linux distributions is stuff he fundamentally doesn't care about (while other bits such as, eventually, creating a useful revision control system he does). Free Software lets you focus on your own core competencies.
He also makes the point, around 35 minutes, that it's very important that people need to know how he feels about things. Including how he feels about support received from hardware vendors.
More specifically, for hardware manufacturers, playing nice and closely with the kernel development community leads to both better product performance and customer relations. The woman asking the Nvidia question clearly wasn't happy with her Nvidia experience. I've learned in assessing hardware compatibility to treat any Nvidia componentry as at best a red flag if not a show-stopper. I'll actively go out of my way to avoid their products (Intel have gone out of their way to ensure compatibility and open specs, my most recent purchases centered on Intel chipsets, in particular for graphics). Playing well with devs also means that issues are addressed in a timely manner, compromises can be reached, and in general communications are open and positive. I don't know the full backstory on the Nvidia front (though searching the LKML mailing list should turn up some bits).
3. ... and yes, the HN moderators fubared this one.
Re: Aalto Talk with Linus Torvalds
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But on the other hand, the mod system has problems as well: > 1. Nobody even knows what the mod system is That is not a problem. This is excellent feature of a moderation system. Meta is death - really. I'm never going to make another meta post after this one. (Unless it's t help a new user.) > 2. Nobody knows who the mods are. Again, that's not a problem. It avoids turning moderating into character battles. A mod…
"Meta is death - really." Metafilter solves this with http://metatalk.metafilter.com . Perhaps HN needs a dedicated place for meta discussion as well.
"We'll handle technology over `here, we'll do social issues there. We'll have separate mailing lists with separate discussion groups, or we'll have one track here and one track there. This doesn't work. It's never been stated more clearly than in the pair of documents called 'LambdaMOO Takes a New Direction.' I can do no better than to point you to those documents."
www.shirky.com/writings/group_enemy.html
Re: Aalto Talk with Linus Torvalds
#129At one point in the video he says he's proud that Linux is the only OS (I'm presuming he meant kernel) that is in mobile and desktop/server systems. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the assumption that OSX and iOS were both based on essentially the same Darwin/XNU kernel?
Re: Aalto Talk with Linus Torvalds
#130F you to the only GPU actually working on Linux. Probably Intel or AMD are a bit more open about the specs, but the only one actually working. I have used them both for graphics and computational stuff with CUDA. Saying Nvidia is bad because they do not publish their specs is ridiculous IMHO. If you start thinking about how some things in a modern CPU are implemented (caching mechanism for example) you will notice that about zero information is published :) They sure have an x64 front end but when it comes to how the CPU works internally things are completely different.