Both Haiku and Linux get new FOSS Nvidia drivers

Not one but two new drivers for some Nvidia GPUs is a promising, if indirect, offshoot of the GPU maker's open-saucy moves.

Two new open source drivers for certain Nvidia GPUs were released recently. One is for Haiku OS, and the other is an all-new FOSS Nvidia driver for Linux. The former is a big deal for this experimental open-source re-implementation of BeOS, which is a niche project with very little in the way of device-driver support from hardware vendors. The other is less crucial, especially given Nvidia already pumps out its own Linux drivers. However, it does offer a smaller, simpler, and probably faster all-FOSS alternative to the existing, but ageing, Nouveau driver.

What's interesting is that aside from how both benefit from Nvidia's 2022 FOSS driver release, the Haiku driver draws upon some code from the other new driver. Back then, the GPU-maker published the ...