Ian Grayson06 August 2007, 10:55 AM
Reluctance on the part of component vendors to offer open source drivers is slowing the PC maker's Linux rollout.
Dell's love affair with open source software continues to grow, but the relationship would be even sweeter with a little more help from graphics card vendors.
The PC maker already offers a range of Ubuntu-based systems for customers looking to break free from the Windows world, but it seems a lack of open source drivers is causing it to delay expanding this range even further.
While loading a desktop or notebook machine with an open source distro is pretty straightforward, getting it to play nicely with all the on-board hardware is a different task. It appears Dell is having particular issues with graphics cards from the likes of NVIDIA and ATI as these companies have so far refused to make open source versions of their drivers available - and there's no sign of this stance changing any time soon.
As a result, when Dell offers the cards in its Linux-based PCs, it has to use partial open source or closed source drivers. The company says it's pushing hard to get equipment vendors to offer open source drivers, but some just don't appear to be hearing the calls.
In a post on the Direct2Dell blog, the company's Linux technology strategist Matt Domsch says some progress is being made, but only slowly.
"Some components, particularly some video cards, have working 2-D open source drivers, open source 3-D drivers actively being clean-room written by the community, and closed-source 3-D drivers available from the video card manufacturer," he says in his post. "In these instances, while we continue to encourage the development (by all parties) towards open source drivers, we will provide the closed-source drivers for people who wish to use them."
Similar driver issues are being faced with other components such as wireless networking cards, TV tuners, and printers. Dell's answer to those looking for a fully fledged, open source experience from their products? Watch this space.