Why not make the drivers open-source?

[sirexar]

Why not make the nVidia drivers open-source it would be beneficial in several ways.

1). You would have a multitude of contritbutors which would speed up progression of new features and developement.

2). Users would be able to refer to the source code and customize it to their system, or fix it if it doesn't work for there system.

3). People would be able to debug their errors alot easier.

4). Since the drivers are already free there would be no loss of profit.

5). Drivers could be developed to work on other un-supported platforms without being a burden on the company's resources.

I just don't see why you would not make them open-source, it would also aid people designing software for nVidia graphics or platfroms.

[TheOneKEA]

The search function is your friend.

This topic has been debated so many times, it isn't funny - basically we've all agreed that fully GPL'd NVIDIA drivers would be wonderful, but that it isn't going to happen because of cross-licensing, NDAs and IP issues, and isn't likely to happen for a long time.