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Topic: NVidia drivers to become open source? (Read 2051 times) previous topic - next topic
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NVidia drivers to become open source?

It is said that certain hackers stole NVidia source code and production documentation (ca. 1TB of data totally) and now they are blackmailing the company demanding to make the drivers open source
https://videocardz.com/newz/hackers-now-demand-nvidia-should-make-their-drivers-open-source-or-they-leak-more-data

Certain pieces of data are already leaked.

Personally, I'm stockpiling popcorn and anticipating the show to go on.

Re: NVidia drivers to become open source?

Reply #1 –
It strikes me as childish. 
As much as I'd love nvidia to provide open source drivers I would expect threats and blackmail makes that less likely than more likely.
That's if you can get less likely than zero chance.

I imagine nvidia position will be along the lines of

Re: NVidia drivers to become open source?

Reply #2 –
Quote from: gripped – on
It strikes me as childish. 
As much as I'd love nvidia to provide open source drivers I would expect threats and blackmail make that less likely than more likely.
That's if you can get less likely than zero chance.
Well, if NVidia doesn't satisfy the demands of the hackers, they'll publish the source code themselves (if they have balls, ofc). The drivers would become 'open source' either way, willingly or reluctantly.

E.g. Twitch became 'open source' a while ago the same way.

Anyway, any leaked data would help in developing the nouveau driver.

Re: NVidia drivers to become open source?

Reply #3 –
There were some comments on that page implying future Nvidia drivers are going to be open source anyway.
Unrelated but also interesting computer related news is the $100bn Intel plant planned for Ohio. (Not discussed in this link, a wider goal was also proposed to manufacture everything the USA consumes within the USA.)
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/president-biden-praises-intel-in-state-of-the-union-address-calls-on-congress-to-give-him-chip-bill-to-sign/
 

Re: NVidia drivers to become open source?

Reply #5 –
Quote from: gripped – on
It really wouldn't. More of a hindrance.


Yeah. Leaked material is still copyrighted and using them as reference for nouveau would be illegal. The Windows 2000 leak in the mid '00s and the more recent XP leak were useless for Wine and ReactOS for that reason.

Re: NVidia drivers to become open source?

Reply #6 –
Quote from: capezotte – on
Leaked material is still copyrighted and using them as reference for nouveau would be illegal.

I don't imply direct usage of leaked code, of course. Instead, this code would provide us with knowledge on how NVidia hardware interfaces actually work etc. In the end of the day, reverse engineering is used in developing of nouveau; with source code available, the 'reverse' part of the workflow won't be as necessary as before.

Re: NVidia drivers to become open source?

Reply #7 –
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO%E2%80%93Linux_disputes

The source code for GNU was deliberately made different than Unix, in order to prevent claims such as the one made by SCO. It is advised to make programs, for example, use dynamic heap allocation where the Unix program uses fixed stack blocks.

Having the source code publicly available would make it more difficult to claim independence of code from Nvidia's.

Re: NVidia drivers to become open source?

Reply #8 –
I think, if you took these codes and used that codes just for yourself, none would know. But for sharing, big deal.

Re: NVidia drivers to become open source?

Reply #9 –
ReactOS is great example, lets take a look at Contributing sections from README
https://github.com/reactos/reactos

Quote
Legal notice: If you have seen proprietary Microsoft Windows source code (including but not limited to the leaked Windows NT 3.5, NT 4, 2000 source code and the Windows Research Kernel), your contribution won't be accepted because of potential copyright violation.

Re: NVidia drivers to become open source?

Reply #10 –
Quote from: VictorBrand – on
It is said that certain hackers stole NVidia source code and production documentation (ca. 1TB of data totally) and now they are blackmailing the company demanding to make the drivers open source
https://videocardz.com/newz/hackers-now-demand-nvidia-should-make-their-drivers-open-source-or-they-leak-more-data

Certain pieces of data are already leaked.

Personally, I'm stockpiling popcorn and anticipating the show to go on.


you should have saved this for apirl fools day with that topic title.   what a missed opportunity!
Cat Herders of Linux

Re: NVidia drivers to become open source?

Reply #11 –
Quote from: ####### – on
There were some comments on that page implying future Nvidia drivers are going to be open source anyway.
Unrelated but also interesting computer related news is the $100bn Intel plant planned for Ohio. (Not discussed in this link, a wider goal was also proposed to manufacture everything the USA consumes within the USA.)
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/president-biden-praises-intel-in-state-of-the-union-address-calls-on-congress-to-give-him-chip-bill-to-sign/



National Security risk to do otherwise and it lets us off the hook should china decide to impose itself on their neighbors. Without being dependent on china or their neighbors for our high end chips our government might be less inclined to assert itself in said conflict.  as it stands now, we in the usa need to protect our overseas chip manufacturers..
Cat Herders of Linux

Re: NVidia drivers to become open source?

Reply #12 –
From the end users perspective, the more new improved chips being made the better, where ever they are built! A lot of Intel chips and other types and brands of semiconductor are already made in the USA. No further news on the source code leak it seems so far, searching online. There are decompilers freely available which can unravel binaries although the output is much more difficult to understand than the original code, and graphics drivers are quite complex to start with. There's quite a lot of info already released by Nvidia if you look at the Nouveau tech docs. Happy nobody suspended you here, to the contrary, I had somehow gained the impression you must be an important contributor to the open source world, not sure doing what or perhaps you will be doing that later.  ;D

Re: NVidia drivers to become open source?

Reply #13 –
i herd cats  you cant get more open source than that?
Cat Herders of Linux

Re: NVidia drivers to become open source?

Reply #14 –
Well, guys, this day has come.
NVIDIA Releases Open-Source GPU Kernel Modules

(Ofc, this is just the first step towards fully operational open source driver for NVidia cards, but this step must be done)

This proves once again that open source is the future of labor relationships and technologies as well, whereas intellectual property over intellectual products only impedes progress and slows down technological and social development.