You know, I still wish the Linux Nvidia driver was fully open source, but they done a exceptional job of making large parts of the binary blob's support open and documented. This means while you still have a large blob acting as a black box, the inputs and outputs are at least well documented, and the supporting semi-open bits are often modifiable into working while you wait for a driver update to support new open tech XYZ. Specifically, most new xorg versions and kernel versions can be made to work with a few patches to the compilable parts of the blob's support, and Nvidia has been good about moving as much out of the blob as they can, without complicating their work or offending BS IP laws.

They get a big black mark for obfuscating the hell out of the open nv 2D-only driver, though. While they may be contributing nearly all the code, that doesn't make it ethically acceptable to obfuscate and encode the source till it's functionally unusable.

I support this, and would pay a price premium for Nexus to come to mean such an open device.

Open hardware means you can compile and install any version of AOSP/Android you like, and enables third party ROMs and modding.

Closed hardware means the Nexus 10 GPU memory leak took months to get addressed.

Closed hardware means that when Google declines to release recovery images of Android for your device, it becomes a doorstop at some later date.

I am the target market, I bought two original Nexus 7s, and later a Nexus 10, and I love them. This news is deeply distressing, I was already unhappy at the number of binary blobs needed to make the N7 and N10 go, to find out that the N7-2 won't even have public restore images as a result of them is a deal breaker.

I've just gone from "will buy an N7-2 when the budget allows" to "totally disinterested". You can't even try out third party ROMs on your N7-2.

You've missed the boat, Google. You forgot what it was that made Android awesome, and now it's time to leave you to it.

Upvote parent if it comes off of +5, please.

Well, it's always been possible to cherry pick hardware that Linux will have a lot of trouble with, just like it's possible to spec out a machine that runs Windows poorly, if at all.

If your sample size was larger than one absurdly old laptop, you'd carry more weight.

I must be extra old today, because I was thinking the same thing. This seems like the summary is being needlessly obtuse, a single short introductory line would have completely sufficed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq9B3evfu8s

Asus themselves danced around the edges of that joke.

Vmware is the magic sauce in your scenario, not OSX. I can boot Linux, reboot to Win8, or boot my Win8 install as a VM. It's very, very simple to set up. I also installed OSX in a VM under Linux on my machine, no hackery needed at install time and only one, one-time hack was needed to enable OSX support in VMware.

The difference between you and I is that while I pay for my OSes, I find the terms and conditions of their EULAs unreasonable to such a degree that I simply dismiss and disregard them, and am prepared to make that same statement in court.

There's a pretty major fix in there for Nexus 10 as well. The 4.2.2 release had a bug in the Mali T604 driver, it leaked memory like a sieve. 4.3 has an updated binary blob. Now I just keep wishing that I had FOSS drivers for everything.

A Nexus device with a fully FOSS software load, now that would be worth something to me!

I have no idea what you're on about. There is an "Avoid Tolls" function, and it's persistent if you're logged in. If you're wanting toll roads avoided by default for non-logged-in users, tough. There are very many people out there who don't mind paying small amounts to make their trips faster. I think it's a slim majority, and Google seems to agree.

Option in question:
http://i.imgur.com/IFSZRh5.png

Hey, nobody's perfect! I have a link here somewhere...

Ah, there we go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs

Because "sand n***er" is an American slur, and the GP appears to be of UK origin, where terms like "Paki" or "Muzzie" are the preferred slurs?

And SAL 9000 back at Urbana was so upset by the news, she was willing to undergo significant risk to herself in order to help Dr. Chandra revive him.

Yet, we are offtopic further still. Where will it end?

Nvidia doesn't have any patience.

I used to own a dark green Honda Accord. Apparently that model and color was very popular among fugitives from the law. On six occasions in three years, I was pulled over for no fault of my own. On two of those six occasions, I had loaded weapons pointed at me, and was ordered to put my hands out the window while the officers approached. On two others, the officer came to the window normally, but I noticed they had the snap closure on their holster open, and kept one hand on their sidearm at all times.

Needless to say, when my Accord dropped it's transmission on the road later, twice, I didn't exactly exhaust myself getting it fixed. New car time! Haven't been pulled over that way since.

Too bad CPU power consumption hasn't been the biggest consumer of watts in many years.

Hint; the biggest amount of consumed current in most laptops is the glowing part you look at.