What is the future of AMD/Nvidia drivers?
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What is the future of AMD/Nvidia drivers?
ReactOS is doing great, I can see it reaching total usability very soon. My only concern is, what about the drivers? Surely, in a community revolving around software freedom, some of us (me included) don't want to use AMD and Nvidia's proprietary drivers. I don't recall Windows ever having free drivers, I only know of them on GNU/Linux. So, exactly how viable would it be to port GNU/Linux's free drivers (ati-dri, mhwd-nvidia, etc) to ReactOS? Is this planned for the far future? Will they be packaged with ReactOS later if they can be ported?
Re: What is the future of AMD/Nvidia drivers?
You will use Windows drivers of which there will be a vast number. Is there a reason why you specifically want to use drivers from a 'foreign' or 'alien' o/s designed for an entirely different o/s? Would you try to do the same for Windows? I'm not sure I appreciate the reason for the work.
The concept of open source does not preclude using closed-source software and there is no intrinsic dislike of proprietary drivers. The ReactOS team simply wants to build an o/s that is driver compatible with Windows, specifically so those open/closed source drivers will run.
That is just part of their aim and the overall aim of building a windows compatible o/s is a big one. Creating new drivers from scratch where such already exist, will not be high on the developer priorities.
The concept of open source does not preclude using closed-source software and there is no intrinsic dislike of proprietary drivers. The ReactOS team simply wants to build an o/s that is driver compatible with Windows, specifically so those open/closed source drivers will run.
That is just part of their aim and the overall aim of building a windows compatible o/s is a big one. Creating new drivers from scratch where such already exist, will not be high on the developer priorities.
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Re: What is the future of AMD/Nvidia drivers?
There are no more XP-compatible drivers of new hardware. We need to implement them from scratch.
-uses Ubuntu+GNOME 3 GNU/Linux
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-favors open source of Windows 10 under GPL2
-likes Free (as in freedom) and Open Source Detergents
-favors open source of Windows 10 under GPL2
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Re: What is the future of AMD/Nvidia drivers?
First ROS has to run on not that recent hardware which has drivers, then we can talk about supporting the new interfaces for NT 6+ drivers. We will NEVER write own drivers above the minimal need like a VGA/VESA driver. Anything else is up to you. Aim for ROS is to support closed source drivers and not making everything from scratch for bearded GNUs and once more ignoring the closed source stuff Windows ppl out there use. If you want this, I recommend using Linux and Wine. There you can install every *nix driver you can find. Open and Closed Source.
And before someone asks: There is NO way to port *nix gfx drivers in a Windows compatible way. You would need a REWRITE and take some stuff from the *nix driver as documentation. And no, MESA is no way, too. Windows has interfaces for drivers and these are used and nothing else. Binary compatible means that we are Windows compatible and no 192392134th Linux distro (because noone of the Linux community can work together and everyone thinks he can do better).
And before someone asks: There is NO way to port *nix gfx drivers in a Windows compatible way. You would need a REWRITE and take some stuff from the *nix driver as documentation. And no, MESA is no way, too. Windows has interfaces for drivers and these are used and nothing else. Binary compatible means that we are Windows compatible and no 192392134th Linux distro (because noone of the Linux community can work together and everyone thinks he can do better).
ReactOS is still in alpha stage, meaning it is not feature-complete and is recommended only for evaluation and testing purposes.
If my post/reply offends or insults you, be sure that you know what sarcasm is...
If my post/reply offends or insults you, be sure that you know what sarcasm is...
Re: What is the future of AMD/Nvidia drivers?
Add HDMI 1.2 to that as HDCP is mandatory in newer monitors (CGA can be emulated by those devices but they do blackout on VGA signals).
-uses Ubuntu+GNOME 3 GNU/Linux
-likes Free (as in freedom) and Open Source Detergents
-favors open source of Windows 10 under GPL2
-likes Free (as in freedom) and Open Source Detergents
-favors open source of Windows 10 under GPL2
Re: What is the future of AMD/Nvidia drivers?
Mesa3d just needs it's winsys bits and such hooed up and the drivers actually compiled for windows... It's been done in the past as closed source for Radeon HD 5xxx it might even be possible to get AMD to donate that code thought it would be several years our of sync with Mess current development tree. The advantage would be you'd actually have the driver source on hand to fix issues... unlike closed windows drivers which will probably be difficult to ever stabilise (and in some cases aren't even stable on Windows itself).EmuandCo wrote:First ROS has to run on not that recent hardware which has drivers, then we can talk about supporting the new interfaces for NT 6+ drivers. We will NEVER write own drivers above the minimal need like a VGA/VESA driver. Anything else is up to you. Aim for ROS is to support closed source drivers and not making everything from scratch for bearded GNUs and once more ignoring the closed source stuff Windows ppl out there use. If you want this, I recommend using Linux and Wine. There you can install every *nix driver you can find. Open and Closed Source.
And before someone asks: There is NO way to port *nix gfx drivers in a Windows compatible way. You would need a REWRITE and take some stuff from the *nix driver as documentation. And no, MESA is no way, too. Windows has interfaces for drivers and these are used and nothing else. Binary compatible means that we are Windows compatible and no 192392134th Linux distro (because noone of the Linux community can work together and everyone thinks he can do better).
It wouldn't be writing your own driver so much as porting Mesa to windows... I won't say that is out of the scope of the ReactOS project but it is probably not something any of the current developers have taken much interest in.
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Re: What is the future of AMD/Nvidia drivers?
It's far out of scope. And that's why I already mentioned in my previous post. I simply knew this would be the next post!
And before someone asks: There is NO way to port *nix gfx drivers in a Windows compatible way. You would need a REWRITE and take some stuff from the *nix driver as documentation. And no, MESA is no way, too. Windows has interfaces for drivers and these are used and nothing else. Binary compatible means that we are Windows compatible and no 192392134th Linux distro (because noone of the Linux community can work together and everyone thinks he can do better).
ReactOS is still in alpha stage, meaning it is not feature-complete and is recommended only for evaluation and testing purposes.
If my post/reply offends or insults you, be sure that you know what sarcasm is...
If my post/reply offends or insults you, be sure that you know what sarcasm is...
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