Since writing an open letter to NVIDIA less than two weeks ago there has been an overwhelming response from the community at large. There are over 7800 signatures with most of these coming in just the first few days of the letter, thanks in part to the positive responses on both Digg and Reddit. Over 4,100 of these 7,800+ supporters have left comments for NVIDIA. The fact remains though that there is still more that can be done if we want NVIDIA to stand behind the open-source community. As Phoronix's Michael Larabel had pointed out when ATI was being scrutinized for their horrid binary driver, instead of spending the time flaming about your gripes, the better approach is to invest that time by contacting the company's OEMs, AIBs, and ODMs. Like ATI, these are NVIDIA's real customers and the ones that can demand action.
Here are some of NVIDIA's real customers:
Acer: http://www.acerpanam.com/synapse/forms/webpage.cfm?siteid=7117&areaid=2&website=AcerPanAm.com
ASUS: http://www.asus.com/aboutasus.aspx?show=3
BFG Tech: http://www.bfgtech.com/contact.aspx
Biostrar: http://www.biostar-usa.com/contactus.asp
Dell: http://support.dell.com/contactus/contactushome.aspx/
eVGA: http://www.evga.com/about/contactus/
Gigabyte: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Company/ContactUs.aspx?CompanyWebPageID=6
HP: http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/contact_us.html
HyperSonic: http://www.hypersonic-pc.com/2001/contact.asp
Leadtek: http://www.leadtek.com/eng/company/contacts.asp
Lenovo: http://www.lenovo.com/scripts/contact/contact3/us/en
MSI: http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=html&name=aboutus
NVIDIA PR: http://www.nvidia.com/page/press_room.html
PNY: http://www2.pny.com/homepage.aspx
Sun: http://www.sun.com/contact/index.jsp
System76: http://system76.com/article_info.php?articles_id=24
XFX: http://www.xfxforce.com/web/company/contactUs.jspa
Zogis: http://www.zogis.com/main_contact.htm
Please write your own letter to any (or all) of these companies expressing your belief about open-source drivers and their value -- both to the company and the consumer. If you wish, below is a base template.
[COMPANY NAME] representative,
As a customer of your ________________, which contains a graphics processor from NVIDIA Corporation, I want to express my dissatisfaction toward their current Linux driver. The leading issue with the driver is the mere fact that it's closed-source. A closed-source Linux driver is considered illegal and is troubling to work with not only by the end-user but by the Linux distribution vendors and all involved parties. NVIDIA does offer an open-source alternative, but it contains only 2D acceleration support and its code is in a unpleasant state.
I know that Linux may not be your primary focus right now, but the Linux market share is growing and I am not alone. There have been thousands of other customers like I that have signed an open letter to NVIDIA. Some are so dedicated to seeing a reliable open-source NVIDIA driver that they are clean-room reverse engineering NVIDIA's binary driver and then writing their own 2D and 3D driver from scratch.
This is not only about open-source ideals, but binary drivers make us completely dependent upon the manufacturer for providing any bug fixes, security issues can go unspotted in these drivers, and it taints the Linux kernel. NVIDIA's key competitor, Advanced Micro Devices, has realized the benefits of a first-rate open-source driver and are actively engaging with the open-source development community by sponsoring work on an OSS driver and releasing programming documentation.
You may not have direct control over NVIDIA's driver development efforts, but I kindly ask that you consider asking NVIDIA for a suitable open-source driver for the Linux operating system or at least better engaging with the open-source community.
Thank you.
[YOUR NAME]