From: Neal Tucker <ntucker@vax.area.com>
  To  : ggi-develop@eskimo.com
  Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 22:30:17 -0700

Re: NVidia is a horseshit company

Shawn Leas says:
> 
> Buying a RIVA card for your PC requires you to buy Windows in order to use
> it's advertised potential.

So what?  I'm sure they don't claim it works on any OS besides windows.
I bet Windows is even in the system requirements.

> This sort of selective "We'll only allow you
> to see how to program our card if you develop for windows" attitued
> precludes your being able to use the cards potential.

I think the attitude is more like "we won't allow you to see how to
program our card.  Period."  They don't want users programming their
video cards.  They sell you a piece of hardware, and a piece of
software to drive it, and that's what you get.  Nowhere on the box or
in the documentation does it claim you can program this card, right?

Whatever they designed the driver to do with the card is their
definition of the cards fullest potential.  If you think you can get
more out of the card than they provide, you're on your own.

They have *no* obligation to tell you how to program the card.

> The real question here is whether they have the right (at LEAST in this
> case) or the justification to hold that info proprietory.

Of course they have the right to do this.  Do you expect a full
schematic for the card's layout too?  Why not?  Don't you feel you
have a "right" to that information?

> In my view,
> they are illegally doing so.

In my view, you're high.

> when you buy a card, you buy:
> 
> 	1) The right to use it to it's full potential
> 	2) The right to obtain enough info to achieve #1, regardless
> 	of what OS you run.

Here's a scenario for you.  I design a video card, and I write a
linux driver for it, and manufacture a bunch of them.  Then, I
find all the documentation I ever wrote for this card and I burn
it.  Now, I've got a warehouse full of cards and I sell them,
guaranteeing that they will work with a specific linux version
using my driver, and that is all.  If my product does what it
says, and lots of people want to buy it, I should be able to
retire and live off the profits.  But in your world, this is
illegal, because I, being the only person who knows anything
about the card, am somehow required to pay a service to those
who bought the card, and write them some documentation when they
demand it.  Even though I sold them a product that did exactly
what I advertised it would do, but they decided it should do more.

> Whether that be binary drivers, and/or minimal information on the card
> [specs] so that it is at least *possible* in the most technical sense to
> "use it's advertised potential".

The "advertised potential" is that it works on windows.  It does that.

After all that ranting, I would like to say that I think it is a
horrible shame when a company keeps the specs for their hardware a
secret, and I think it's a mistake on their part.  However, we as
users have no *rights* to this information.  The *only* power we
have over these companies is that we ultimately pay their bills,
but only if they sell us what we want.  It needs to be made clear
to them that what we want is cards with open specs, and that we
won't buy anything else.

I plan to mail NVidia something to the effect of "I'm interested
in your Riva card, but I want a card which I can write low-level
software for directly.  Are Riva programming specs available?"
No need to come across as a frothing "HEY WE DEMAND THIS OR ELSE!"
spaz.  Just let them know that they really will lose that sale
because of their policy.

-Neal Tucker