GPL'd Driver and Linux Support For New H.264 Capture Card 119
azop writes "Almost a year ago Slashdot covered the story of a MPEG-4 multiple input capture card with a GPL Video4Linux licensed driver. Earlier this year, Ben Collins added H.264 support into the solo6x10 Video4Linux2 GPL driver. The H.264 PCIe cards are finally released and shipping to customers. The new cards support faster frame rates and sport a PCIe interface. The driver is available for forkin' on Github."
Re:Software / Firmware (Score:3, Interesting)
it can be an FPGA, or even sillicon hard.
I work with this device and it boots up without any kind of ROM or firmware upload.
In this case, would you like the VHDL to be open?
If that's the case, why not ask intel/AMD/... to release the VHDL for their current lineup?
Re:Software / Firmware (Score:4, Interesting)
Why is it important that linux drivers have source available but we don't worry so much about seeing the firmware source? Should we be pushing to see firmware source too? Instead should it not matter about seeing driver source? I'd love to hear your perspectives.
Device A has an open source driver, proprietary guts, and a firmware blob loaded by the driver on boot.
Device B has an open source driver, proprietary guts, and a firmware blob hidden in an immutable ROM on the device that you don't know about.
For some reason, Debian scorns Device A and praises Device B, even if the firmware blob for Device A allows unlimited redistribution. For the most part I like Debian, but that policy is just silly: Device A is the one that has the greater potential for end-user hackability.