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> they've never helped out with open source drivers

I think that's only true when it comes to 3D drivers. They wrote the 2D nv driver:

http://xorg.freedesktop.org/wiki/nv/

I do remember people complaining it was full of magic numbers to obfuscate what it was doing but it was indeed open source and written by nvidia.

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The nv driver exists for the single purpose of getting into a working desktop, so one can install the proprietary driver.

It is not intended as decent 2D-only driver or anything like that.

I don't know think this is a fair assessment; wouldn't having users fall-back on the vesa driver be sufficient for what you are describing? The nv driver supports extensions like xv, so I've always found it was fine for my 2D needs.

That is the reasoning I've heard (read on the ML) from nvidia employees working on said driver.

Yes, I stand corrected on that.

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