this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2024
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Nvidia also buys and licenses code from other companies. These days they're on top of the chain, but they used to be a lot smaller. Maybe they rewrote their drivers to remove the external code, but I wouldn't be surprised if they still have old external code in their drivers.

AMD tried to open their source code for a display technique (VRR I think? Not sure what it was) but was prevented from doing so by the standards authority, presumably because they used licensed reference code. I don't think this applies to the older 10xx series of cards, but these factors are difficult to work around.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

Hmdi 2.1 and the hdmi consortium prevented them from releasing code. It wasn't even proprietary, just based on a licensed implementation from what I understood.