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Both Haiku and Linux get new FOSS Nvidia drivers
Quoting: Both Haiku and Linux get new FOSS Nvidia drivers —
Not one but two new drivers for some Nvidia GPUs is a promising, if indirect, offshoot of the GPU maker's open-saucy moves.
Two new open source drivers for certain Nvidia GPUs were released recently. One is for Haiku OS, and the other is an all-new FOSS Nvidia driver for Linux. The former is a big deal for this experimental open-source re-implementation of BeOS, which is a niche project with very little in the way of device-driver support from hardware vendors. The other is less crucial, especially given Nvidia already pumps out its own Linux drivers. However, it does offer a smaller, simpler, and probably faster all-FOSS alternative to the existing, but ageing, Nouveau driver.
What's interesting is that aside from how both benefit from Nvidia's 2022 FOSS driver release, the Haiku driver draws upon some code from the other new driver. Back then, the GPU-maker published the source code for its Linux kernel modules, and it did so under the permissive MIT license.
We have to note that both drivers are only for some recent models of Nvidia graphics chip – specifically, ones from the company's Turing family of GPUs, which has been around since 2018. (Broadly that means the RTX 20XX and GTX 16XX models). Neither driver supports older Nvidia GPUs, so neither is any help for those of us who are still struggling with Nvidia legacy Linux drivers. Even so, their existence is a sign that the Jolly Green Giant's open source initiative in 2022 is starting to bear fruit… or at least, it's resulted in some early flowers which may soon turn into something worth eating.