NVIDIA confirms $40 billion deal to buy Arm

Quoting: omer666This sucks big time, because it's going to create a new HPC hardware monopoly. Also given Nvidia's company "culture" about openness, this hardware monopoly can potentially become even worse.

Money is the only argument that prevents me from building an all-new full AMD rig and scrap both Nvidia and Intel parts for good right now.

They still have to face competition from AMD and Intel so it's not exactly a monopoly. And other companies are still going to be able to license ARM IPs.

Quoting: x_wing

Quoting: EhvisYou'd think that Linux users, who have been on the receiving end of FUD, would be slightly more careful with what they say. Unfortunately not the first time this has been proven wrong.

So Noveau poor performance is not Nvidia fault? Facts != FUD.

No it's not. It's a consequence of NVIDIA keeping secrets, but that doesn't make them at fault. And the way you wrote it was suggesting nvidia was late to the party and actively worked against nouveau. Neither of which is true. Nvidia has made closed source drivers for 20 years now and has behaved the same for all of those 20 years. They're entirely predictable and entirely what you would expect from a big market leading company.

Quoting: WJMazepas

Quoting: omer666This sucks big time, because it's going to create a new HPC hardware monopoly. Also given Nvidia's company "culture" about openness, this hardware monopoly can potentially become even worse.

Money is the only argument that prevents me from building an all-new full AMD rig and scrap both Nvidia and Intel parts for good right now.

They still have to face competition from AMD and Intel so it's not exactly a monopoly. And other companies are still going to be able to license ARM IPs.

There is competition indeed, but do they stand a chance? It is like suggesting Microsoft didn't have a monopoly in the 90's because there was Apple. HPC is already their biggest source of income right now, and with the ARM buyout, I can't think of anyone who can stop them as we speak.


Last edited by omer666 on 14 September 2020 at 7:20 pm UTC

Quoting: EhvisNo it's not. It's a consequence of NVIDIA keeping secrets, but that doesn't make them at fault. And the way you wrote it was suggesting nvidia was late to the party and actively worked against nouveau. Neither of which is true. Nvidia has made closed source drivers for 20 years now and has behaved the same for all of those 20 years. They're entirely predictable and entirely what you would expect from a big market leading company.

Five to six years ago nouveau didn't have this problem but some Nvidia changes made almost useless Nouveau, changes that they don't want to bring nor share with the the OSS software eventhough they still take their time in order to submit patches for 2D acceleration in nouveau. And no, their behavior is far from being what you should expect from "a big market leading company" as Intel is also a big one and they properly support Linux with their products.

It seems that you can justify their behavior but sorry, I can't do the same.

I find myself wondering if this is all going to happen as smoothly as they act like it will. People, and governments, are starting to fear the big tech monopolies; there's talk about waking antitrust up again. This might make a convenient test case, in say the EU--big enough to look like the kind of market concentration that's problematic, small enough that you don't have to lead by taking on frigging Google or Amazon.

Quoting: omer666

Quoting: WJMazepas

Quoting: omer666This sucks big time, because it's going to create a new HPC hardware monopoly. Also given Nvidia's company "culture" about openness, this hardware monopoly can potentially become even worse.

Money is the only argument that prevents me from building an all-new full AMD rig and scrap both Nvidia and Intel parts for good right now.

They still have to face competition from AMD and Intel so it's not exactly a monopoly. And other companies are still going to be able to license ARM IPs.

There is competition indeed, but do they stand a chance? It is like suggesting Microsoft didn't have a monopoly in the 90's because there was Apple. HPC is already their biggest source of income right now, and with the ARM buyout, I can't think of anyone who can stop them as we speak.

How are they more likely to dominate this market that already is dominated by Intel? ARM doesnt have significant portions of the HPC market.

Nvidia does have a good share of the AI market but other comapnies are growing up a lot and some like tesla are making their own technology

I came here expecting anti-Nvidia bile and I wasn't disappointed! I'll step away and do some gaming whilst enjoying the working proprietary drivers on my 1660TI ;-)

Quoting: robvvI came here expecting anti-Nvidia bile and I wasn't disappointed!

Oh, we totally should have cheered a nasty anti-competitive bully swallowing a major chip company that has a major industry impact? No, thanks.


Last edited by Shmerl on 15 September 2020 at 1:07 am UTC

Good for them.

I know I'm swimming against the current here, but despite the fact that their interests don't really align with us, I always liked and respected Nvidia.
They always treated me right with their drivers, they worked on par with the Windows ones, they were reliable (sure, bug happens), and in about 20 years as a Linux user I knew I could always count on them to deliver the best performance.
Sure, there's more than looking for performance, I'm not living in a bubble oblivious to the existing Nvidia issues, and I've heard (or some experienced myself) them all, here, reddit, discord or whatever place where someone mentions Nvidia and shit start hitting the fan, so please, don't try to "open my eyes". And I'm not an "Nvidia or bust" person either, as you can see I'm rocking a AMD GPU right now, since it was the best card for the money at the time.
Maybe is a bit of nostalgia, since in my early Linux years I used only Nvidia cards, I dunno...I used to break my system all the time in all the imaginable ways, and there was a single constant piece if software that refused to break, guess which one :)

But anyway, I just think that Nvidia is an impressive front-runner company that excels at what they do. I hope they put this acquisition to good use, so yeah, good for them.

Quoting: dubigrasuGood for them.

I know I'm swimming against the current here, but despite the fact that their interests don't really align with us, I always liked and respected Nvidia.
They always treated me right with their drivers, they worked on par with the Windows ones, they were reliable (sure, bug happens), and in about 20 years as a Linux user I knew I could always count on them to deliver the best performance.
Sure, there's more than looking for performance, I'm not living in a bubble oblivious to the existing Nvidia issues, and I've heard (or some experienced myself) them all, here, reddit, discord or whatever place where someone mentions Nvidia and shit start hitting the fan, so please, don't try to "open my eyes". And I'm not an "Nvidia or bust" person either, as you can see I'm rocking a AMD GPU right now, since it was the best card for the money at the time.
Maybe is a bit of nostalgia, since in my early Linux years I used only Nvidia cards, I dunno...I used to break my system all the time in all the imaginable ways, and there was a single constant piece if software that refused to break, guess which one :)

But anyway, I just think that Nvidia is an impressive front-runner company that excels at what they do. I hope they put this acquisition to good use, so yeah, good for them.

I don't actually agree with you but I liked the comment because I respect where you're coming from and the way you expressed it.