In a change of heart, Novell has ceased distributing proprietary software modules such as 3D video drivers that plug into the Linux kernel.
The change came with Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Server 10, released in July. With the move, Novell is aligning itself with the Free Software Foundation, which shuns proprietary software in general but in particular loathes proprietary modules that run as a component of the open source Linux kernel.
The Linux kernel comes with numerous open source modules that handle everything from storing files on hard drives to communicating with networks. However, a few companies offer proprietary modules that let Linux communicate with various hardware devices. Among the most widely used proprietary modules are video card drivers that provide 3D graphics support.
Although customers can still install proprietary modules on their own, Novell's ban reflects a new balance between the open source and proprietary realms. The Linux kernel is governed by the GNU General Public License (GPL), written initially by Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman and now undergoing modernisation.
"Many developers in the kernel community consider kernel level modules to be subject to the GPL terms. Novell respects this position and has a policy of distributing kernel modules that are compatible with the GPL," said Holger Dyroff, vice president of Linux product management, in a statement.
Some of those opposed to proprietary modules work for Novell itself. Kernel programmer Greg Kroah-Hartman, in a July speech at the Ottawa Linux Symposium, stated bluntly, "Closed-source Linux modules are illegal." Not only that, they're "unethical" as well, he said.
The proprietary module ban began several months ago with Suse Linux 10, the company's free version that's being renamed OpenSuse, but only in July spread to the company's corporate products.
Instead, Novell software automatically gives customers "the option to download drivers", a method that "also gives the responsibility for drivers to the vendors, which is where it belongs", Dyroff said.
Proprietary modules can be difficult for customers, since sometimes software updates from the Linux supplier break compatibility with the driver. Novell's new technique ensures proprietary drivers stay up to date, the company said.
According to the Free Software Foundation's top lawyer, Eben Moglen, though, the kernel is governed in practice by a modified GPL: "If the kernel were pure GPL in its licence terms...you couldn't link proprietary video drivers into it, whether dynamically or statically," Moglen said in a January interview.
With SLES 10, Novell kicked out some proprietary drivers, including one for ATI video cards, LSI Logic storage systems, some software-based modems, and ISDN networking equipment from AVM, spokesman Bruce Lowry said.
Proprietary drivers are in demand in some cases, despite philosophical and legal objections. One Linux version, Linspire's Freespire, features one-click access to proprietary drivers as a selling point. Linspire plans to launch the version on 15 August at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo.
Talkback
The change was actually announced back at the end of 2005 and came into effect when SUSE 10.1 was released for public Beta testing.
SUSE 10.1 was released back in May. It comes on 5 CD's with only OSS licensed software. Software under different licenses and proprietary software such as some wireless card drivers, Opera, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Flash and Real Player are supplied on a 6th CD. The retail version includes the extra software on the DVD, so no disk swapping...
Also, SUSE have never provided proprietary video drivers with their distribution, the OSS "radeon" and "nv" drivers, for example, were included, but the proprietary drivers from ATi and nVidia were never included on the distribution. The nVidia drivers were available through the online update process, although the ATi drivers never were.
Now it works much like the Windows drivers, you download a self-executable from nVidia or ATi's website and follow the wizard to install the drivers, not exactly difficult (clicking Yes/Next half a dozen times does the job).
The video drivers, to be honest, are the least of the problem, because they were never directly included in the distribution, but some ISDN TA and wireless drivers have been excluded which is a shame.
While i can understand the Kernel developer's opinions on this matter, as a user I can't say I agree 100% with the way they are handling this. They have slammed the door on closed source drivers for several valid reasons - breaking the GPL/developers copyright by attaching to GPL'ed routines whilst not releasing their own code under GPL, even though they are using GPL'ed interfaces in the code; difficulty of testing/debugging, in that if you don't have the source code for the drivers, if something goes wrong, you can't fix it.
The manufacturers have had a reasonable amount of time to counter this problem (over 6 months), in which to either move their drivers out of the Kernel space, or to open source their driver code. Many manufacturers have responded well to this and are working closely with the OSS community, Intel and nVidia among them - in fact getting an Intel based motherboard with onboard Intel based graphics is probably the most efficient way to go these days if you don't want to use closed source drivers.
Other manufacturers though have just complained loudly about the change and have spent the time whinning about the problems it causes as opposed to working on solutions which are acceptable.
When I heard about the announcement when I was working on the Beta of SUSE 10.1 in January, I was very worried about the situation, it sounded like the developers were slamming the door and cutting off the drivers without allowing the manufacturers time to respond. It seemed like cutting off your nose to spite your face, leaving the users with the options of staying with older, working installations, or upgrading to the latest versions without support for much of their hardware.
But in reality it has bee much smoother than I had expected for most hardware. There are still problems with products from companies (mostly ISDN and wireless networking manufacturers), who haven't reacted well to the changes, but the user can still manually download and install the relevant drivers.
My setup has two different printers (HP and Samsung), a USB hard disk, nVidia and ATi graphics cards, Intel Centrino and Athlon 64 machines, Intel and Creative sound cards and wireless networking and I haven't had any real problems, the USB drive just works, as do the scanner and card reader in my HP Photosmart, just plug the memory cards in and they appear in a new window automatically on my desktop. In fact if you get the right hardware, it all installs a darned sight easier than under Windows! SUSE says it has found new hardware, do you want to use it, Windows tends to say it has found new hardware, give me some drivers if you want to use it!
Now, if we could just get the recalcitrant hardware developers t
While it would be nice to have no need fo9r binary only modules in the kernel ect the fact is that untill such time as hardware mamafacturers are FORCED to release information to the OSS world we are stuck with them or
Poor performance and badly behaved reverse engineered drivers .
Well i am sorry but my vote goes for leeping the stuff untill such time as an viable alternative is available