open source graphics card

[Oliver Fromme]

soralx at cydem.org wrote:
 > 
 > > Another thing to keep in mind: In order to produce a
 > > competitive graphics card today (at a competitive price!),
 > > it must be at least on par with the "big ones", which
 > > requires DirectX 9 and HDCP support, among other things.
 > 
 > DirectX, HDCP, and other garbage is not open source, thus ought to be
 > disregarded.

If you disregard those technologies, you won't be able to
sell the card at a competitive price, because only very
few people would consider buying it.

 > > Did I already mention patents?
 > 
 > Basically, you aren't getting hardware for free anyway, open "source"
 > or not (unless you own a PCB mill and a chip making plant). So, paying
 > due "respects" to the inventors who hold patents should be considered
 > part of the cost (unless the tax is ridiculously inflated).

Right.  Patents may be a PITA, but they are not mutual
exclusive with open-source.

You only run into problems when you need to use technology
that needs to be licensed from a company that doesn't
allow it to be open-sourced.  Or when there are laws or
regulations that forbid certain technology to be open-
sourced (as is the case for some WLAN chips, so users
cannot modify the frequency settings to violate FCC
regulations).

Best regards
   Oliver

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