SGI Releases OpenGL As Free Software 167
StoneLion writes "Since its release, the OpenGL code that is responsible for 3-D acceleration on GNU/Linux has been running on licenses that were accepted by neither the Free Software Foundation (FSF) nor the Open Source Initiative. Today, however, the FSF has announced that the licenses in question have been rewritten, the problems resolved, and the code freed. Peter Brown, executive director of the FSF, says, 'This represents a huge gift to the free software community.'"
Where is the updated GLX public license? (Score:3, Interesting)
The link to the GLX public license lists version 1.0 which seems to still have the problematic clauses.
Big news (Score:5, Interesting)
The opening of video card drivers and now opengl are major steps in the success of linux on the desktop (and for gamers).
Just imagine, we can now add opengl to Heretic and Command and Conquer, and it can all still be very much free. I can't wait for when I can port Halflife2 to Linux.
Good news? (Score:1, Interesting)
Without wishing to piss on anyone's parade, I'm not so sure this is such a great thing....let me explain...
The fundamentals of OpenGL and Direct3d is it a standard agreed on by software developers and hardware vendors alike right? While it's great this is now free, if one target now diversifies into a hundred different variations, you can be sure the likes of NVidia and ATI drop it completely.
Don't get me wrong, I do support the FOSS philosophy but in this case I'm not convinced it's such a great move?
Re:Quick question... (Score:3, Interesting)
I've gotten results with a Radeon HD3450 running an HDMI to a 1080p TV. It took a little tweaking, especially of accursed X configuration files, but the standard ATI driver works.
Re:The important lesson here is. (Score:5, Interesting)
I think it depends really.
In the recent Ubuntu/Mozilla case, both Ubuntu and Fedora had behind-the-scenes quiet negotiations with Mozilla over the EULAs. However Mozilla insisted that it wanted and needed the EULA.
It wasn't until there was a fairly big uproar about it did Mozilla come back to the table to renegotiate.
So sometimes the squeaky wheel does get the grease :)
Re:The important lesson here is. (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, with the recent Firefox issue the FLOSS community was on both sides of the table and they're both fairly dependent on each other, it's a bit different than when you're trying to ask for a unilateral favor since I don't see SGI getting much in return, nor the FSF/OSI having much power if they refused. At least the distros could have banded together, told Mozilla that from now on Firefox on Linux == Iceweasel and built their own trademark. Debian doing it is just a freak thing, every distro doing it means Mozilla would have lost all control. This way they get to keep firefox as a brand and their lucrative deal with google. If it was IceWeasel, why wouldn't the distros negotiate their own deal? Or maybe they do, I prefer Opera anyway :).
Re:Big news (Score:3, Interesting)
"Open" in business denotes that other businesses are also allowed participate. And OpenGL was in that sense "open": many used the library, many contributed extensions and features.
As library - it is (was?) proprietary closed source. As standard - it is open.
Re:Is OpenGL a player anymore? (Score:5, Interesting)
OpenGL was never very big in the gaming world either. Quake/HL was a standout in this regard, but most 3D game engines have been very custom, or based on DirectX - DirectX was sort of mandatory once game authors lost direct access to hardware.
Re:Big news (Score:3, Interesting)
Sadly, OGL was never the standard in the gaming world. Games went from mode13 to directx to direct3d pretty much universally. OGL was only used by a small number of players (though ID, obviously was a significant one).
No, the OTHER license. (Score:3, Interesting)
There were two licenses listed as having problems, that's only one of them.