Published at LXer:

ZDNet has an interesting article that brings readers up to speed on what's happening on the Linux graphic card compatibility and advanced GUI effects front. As usual there's a tug-of-war with people in the Linux developer community (including the free software advocates) and hardware makers regarding implementation of proprietary drivers with the Linux kernel, as opposed to offering full open-source drivers. The only trouble the hardware makers point out is that most of their closed-source drivers implement licensed third-party technologies that make it impossible to open them up for public development. [It looks as if Intel plans to respond to the community. Great. We either have to use proprietary drivers or get FOSS drivers at the expense of being sucked into Intel's DRM. Vendors need to quit paying lipservice to the FOSS philosophy and GET REAL! - dcparris]

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Closed-source drivers and DRMs for them is simply retarded. You canNOT pirate a piece of hardware. Graphics cards are hardware. Who gives a crap about software that makes the card work? It's the graphics card itself that makes the package cost so much money, not the software.

How about someone make a company dedicated to producing Linux and Windows compatible hardware with 100% open-source drivers...