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Building a Linux GPU Driver for the M4 Mac Mini in One Month

422 points · 290 comments · ADevWithAnIdea

thrwy19940314 · 1789509926 · focus · HN ↗
All this work is tainted since the poster is ex-Apple[1]. There is no way Linux will take that code, since people from Apple also contribute to Linux and this creates a major conflict.
There's also ongoing issues around Codex for this sort of thing, given Apple is suing OpenAI over stolen trade secrets[2]. And nobody knows whether training data in other models is similarly tainted.
[1]: <a href="https://codyho.dev/documents/cody_ho_resume.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://codyho.dev/documents/cody_ho_resume.pdf
[2]: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/10/apple-sues-openai-trade-secrets" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/10/apple-sue...
1. userbinator · 1789536710 · focus · HN ↗
  I don't give a flying fuck.
  Ignoring the idiocy of Imaginary Property is how China is winning.
  It's time we caught up and then leap ahead. Everything is a derivative work.
  1. otterley · 1789537414 · focus · HN ↗
    So, what do you do for a living?
    ndriscoll · 1789564224 · focus · HN ↗
    I write software for a living and think we should abolish software copyright, and furthermore, source availability should be a basic consumer protection requirement. Basically the free software definition should be law.
    otterley · 1789569806 · focus · HN ↗
    And you don’t think abolishing copyright would impact your career or your ability to feed your family?
    ndriscoll · 1789570870 · focus · HN ↗
    Of course I think it would change things. You think I haven't considered that? But I also think society would be a better place if we worked to produce new software that people desire instead of gatekeeping what already exists, and if the law banned this one-sided gatekeeping. The goal of all people should be to build lasting wealth for the next generation to inherit, not to hoard what is naturally infinite.
    Plumbers don't extract subscription fees from your use of the toilet. Electricians don't get a fee for your use of a light fixture. They don't get a monopoly on fixing your things because you bought it through them. The whole idea of IP is absurd. It should be the opposite: anyone should always be free to go to someone else if they become unhappy with us, taking the work they bought from us with them. The law should bar any attempts to stop them/build roadblocks.
    Happily, I see LLMs have great potential to make everything effectively FOSS now anyway, so all we really need is regulations against anti-competitive behavior like requiring signed firmware.
    otterley · 1789578774 · focus · HN ↗
    > I also think society would be a better place if we worked to produce new software that people desire
    That's the entire point of copyright -- to incentivize this work by conveying ownership to those who produce such software. Without ownership, others would be free to take it and give you nothing. The world doesn't work for free. I doubt you do, either.
    userbinator · 1789586549 · focus · HN ↗
    others would be free to take it and give you nothing
    And that's fine, because I'm being paid to provide a service, actual labour (which might admittedly involve prompting an LLM), but it's still doing something new. There's tons of people being paid to work on OSS, and much of which would still exist by volunteer effort alone.
    otterley · 1789590607 · focus · HN ↗
    > There's tons of people being paid to work on OSS, and much of which would still exist by volunteer effort alone.
    Those people are largely working on OSS as a hobby or for clout, i.e., to kickstart their career; or, they're working on a loss leader that will (if history is any indication) eventually lead to a license rug pull when they find out GPL/BSD/MIT licenes aren't a path to riches.
    I'll concede that hobby projects that have led to Linux, programming languages, etc. do provide valuable connective tissue to the world, but most of the stuff that appeals to the end user isn't OSS.
    > I'm being paid to provide a service
    If you're like most of us, you're likely being paid to provide a service that depends on copyright as a foundation. Ask your company's lawyer their opinion on what the company would do if your work wasn't protected by it, or if someone broke into your company's source code repos and stole it.

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