Finally, a Linux distribution gets proprietary drivers right.
For those of you that aren’t fully versed on GPLv2 vs GPLv3 wars, and all the other open source wars… the Linux community has been having trouble with graphics drivers and various other device drivers. Specifically, they refuse to include drivers made by NVIDIA and ATI, due to their status as closed-source drivers.
Both the driver makers say that they need to keep these drivers proprietary, because they contain code that could be exploited by the competition (in competitor’s products). So, until now, Linux has been devoid of real 3D hardware acceleration.
Ubuntu 8.04 ends that. The first time software updates are checked, a user is prompted with an offer to “Install Proprietary Device Drivers” which then installs the drivers as part of a system software update. Was that so hard?
Now if we could just start work on that packaging problem. Well, maybe not.