135 Linux Kernel developers and the Linux Foundation have signed a statement condemning closed-source, binary-only drivers like the one from NVIDIA.
Developers blame Nvidia for hindering Linux desktop adoption
System76 sells both of their 15.4" laptops (Serval Performance and Pangolin Performance) with NVIDIA as the only option, and offers only NVIDIA discrete cards for desktops. I urge you to join the boycott of NVIDIA and sell AMD/ATI graphics cards instead.
AMD Makes An Evolutionary Leap In Linux Support
James Bottomley, the Linux Foundation Technical Advisory Board Chair and SCSI Maintainer, had this to say about NVIDIA's binary blobs:
By using NVIDIA only, you are making Linux look bad and doing your customers (especially those who don't know better than to buy NVIDIA) a great disservice. I'm the happy owner of a Pangolin Value with Intel graphics running 100% FOSS drivers, but as System76 is currently offering only NVIDIA on your 15" laptop models, I would not recommend buying from you.Since most experienced Linux users know either to pick Intel or to carefully research their choice of graphics card, most of the reported oopses are coming from less experienced or even novice Linux users. The problem here is that these people quickly get frustrated with the problems which they will ascribe to Linux in general, not the problem binary driver in particular. Even worse, they may report the problem to a Linux forum only to be told that it's a binary driver issue and can't be fixed, thus leaving the reporter with few options to try a working Linux system beyond an expensive graphics hardware replacement. These users aren't likely to continue their experiment with Linux; nor will they recommend it to their friends. In fact, they're probably turned off Linux for a considerable period (if not for life). This last is an illustration of the active harm binary modules do to the Linux ecosystem: Linux gets classified as unusable because of a problem in a binary module which no open source developer can fix.
BTW: If System76 is shipping Linux bundled with NVIDIA's binary-only drivers, they are violating the GPL and copyright law.
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