> Whoever writes the OS is in a much better position to write drivers. This is the reason Linux drivers are (usually) very good.
You really think that Linux developers would know how to squeeze better performance out of Nvidia hardware than the Nvidia even with the design specs? Nvidia has the foremost experts in designing GPUs and software around it (Cuda).
The software and the hardware teams know the intricacies of their hardware better than anyone and they work in concert to design a better product.
How long would it take the hypothetical Apple Hardware company to release products that the hypothetical Apple Software company wrote drivers for if they were split up?
Could the new Apple hardware company say release the AirPods that paired seamlessly with multiple products just by pairing with one device signed into your account and release a new version of MacOS, iOS, TvOS, etc at the same time? Apple, Google and even AWS (in the server space) design hardware and processors in tandem with their software teams. They don’t just throw designs over the fence with documentation.
> This situation is not unique to Apple, which is why we have shitty NVidia drivers in Linux, and why Android hardware support ends.
That’s a poor excuse. The fact is that Google is just a shitty platform caretaker. Microsoft has the same business model where they make the OS and license it to OEMs yet they support hardware for years if not decades.
Google doesn’t support its own phones as long as Apple. There is no excuse.
> You really think that Linux developers would know how to squeeze better performance out of Nvidia hardware than the Nvidia even with the design specs?
Yes. Even more importantly, they would be able to keep it stable alongside Mesa and Wayland/Xorg updates.
> Nvidia has the foremost experts in designing GPUs and software around it (Cuda).
And breaking up the company wouldn't make those people disappear! On the contrary, it would liberate their work. They would suddenly be free to start making CUDA compatible with AMDGPU! It would be wonderful.
Even if those people kept their work closed-source, just having an open hardware spec would do wonders for nouveau development. Last I checked, nouveau can't even set the GPU clock speed!
> Google doesn’t support its own phones as long as Apple. There is no excuse.
And that's my entire point! Google is bad at handling this responsibility, so let's take it off their hands! The reality is that Google doesn't want us to, because long term support is bad for their bottom-line!
> And breaking up the company wouldn't make those people disappear! On the contrary, it would liberate their work. They would suddenly be free to start making CUDA compatible with AMDGPU! It would be wonderful.
The chip designers at NVidia work alongside the software people iteratively. They don’t just design the perfect chip and throw it over the fence.
Cuda isn’t just great (I’m not in that space, it might suck. I honestly don’t know) software that could be ported to any architecture. Cuda is written to work on a specific architecture both the hardware and the software inform each other.
You really think that Linux developers would know how to squeeze better performance out of Nvidia hardware than the Nvidia even with the design specs? Nvidia has the foremost experts in designing GPUs and software around it (Cuda).
The software and the hardware teams know the intricacies of their hardware better than anyone and they work in concert to design a better product.
How long would it take the hypothetical Apple Hardware company to release products that the hypothetical Apple Software company wrote drivers for if they were split up?
Could the new Apple hardware company say release the AirPods that paired seamlessly with multiple products just by pairing with one device signed into your account and release a new version of MacOS, iOS, TvOS, etc at the same time? Apple, Google and even AWS (in the server space) design hardware and processors in tandem with their software teams. They don’t just throw designs over the fence with documentation.
> This situation is not unique to Apple, which is why we have shitty NVidia drivers in Linux, and why Android hardware support ends.
That’s a poor excuse. The fact is that Google is just a shitty platform caretaker. Microsoft has the same business model where they make the OS and license it to OEMs yet they support hardware for years if not decades.
Google doesn’t support its own phones as long as Apple. There is no excuse.