Open Source drivers - why?

In several posts, I have seen wording like this:

I obviously agree that without drivers for whatever kernel Acronis uses on the Rescue CD, there is no way that TrueImage will be able to work with a large number of controllers and peripherals.

But I do not agree that the drivers specifically needs to be Open Source'd - unless it is based on some ethical policy at Acronis that says that proprietary code is *bad*

I checked the download section at NVIDIA to see if they had a Linux driver available for their RAID controller. Unfortunately, the answer was NO, so that explains why there is not support for that controller in the rescue environment.

But what about support for the NVIDIA Ethernet controller built into their nForce2/3/4 chipset? In the beginning NVIDIA's close source'd driver was the only option for all Linux distributions, but about a year ago the first open source driver appeared. Did Acronis exclude the NVIDIA Ethernet driver from their product because it was not open source, and only started to support it when the open source version became available? I find that very hard to believe, so *please* drop that "open source" retoric....

 

Hi MiniMax,

I'm not a Linux user/fan (other than via the TI boot rescue environment!!) so what I'm about to say could well be wrong.

Is not the whole ethos behind Linux the fact that the core code (and I take that to include device drivers) should remain open source? I've always assumed that it's only the packaging together of the various core components and their subsequent distribution that can be prorietary.

Regards

 

It depends. Some people will rather die than allow proprietary code into their system, while others could not care less as long as the price is right (nil). I prefer free, open software, but my computer is a tool, and if I need a piece of closed software to use that tool, then that is fine with me.

Acronis's products are not Open Source, so why the obsession with Open Source drivers?

 

Thanks for the reply. Although to be fair to Acronis they have stated that they're prepared to develop their own SATA RAID drivers for the Nforce chipsets if only nVidia would release the necessary tech specs.

Regards

 

Hello Minimax --

Well, the reason why _most_ of the drivers in the bootable media are open source ones because companies rarely are eager to give away their closed drivers upon request and even if they do, they usually do not give the code of the driver, so that it's very hard if not impossible to optimize it for the application. Right now there are several negotiations going regarding closed drivers that we would like to have in the product and if we succeed, I believe the compatibility list of the hardware supported in the rescue mode will enhance greatly.

Thank you.

Anton Gromov

 

Thanks for the replies, guys.