Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> ____/ chrisv on Wednesday 08 August 2007 19:38 : \____
>
>> Mark Kent wrote:
>>
>>>But if we have binary drivers, then we will be locked in to those
>>>drivers. Surely this is obvious?
>>
>> How could something be "obvious" when it is not true? Nvidia drivers,
>> for example. What's obvious is that we have the choice to use them,
>> or not.
>
> Open source ones exist as well. They will evolve.
>
But if they become generally accepted, which with some of the attitudes
we see here and elsewhere, we will see organisations become highly
dependent on them, thus they will be locked-in.
For example, if you have a choice of a) a reasonably performant graphics
card with an open driver or b) a more highly performance card with a
locked-down driver and you purchase, say, 10,000 machines of that
combination, then your exit cost becomes huge. This is the nature of
lock-in, and it's directly related to existence of binary proprietary
code and locked-down hardware.
To claim this is not true is amazing.
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
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