Nvidia's moved most of the code to firmware before releasing Open-Source Linux drivers

pcgamer.com:

Linux gaming, once thought of as a niche option for the passionate few, is now steadily moving out of the shadows. This has only been accelerated by its use in Valve's Steam Deck which is still working towards improvements for things like battery life with Linux drivers. 

Even just the announcement that the new hybrid console would be using the Linux platform boosted Linux's Steam market share by 1%. This might not sound like much, but for Linux gamers this has been a huge deal that's only getting bigger and potentially better.

Recently, amongst this surge for Linux gaming, Nvidia did the unthinkable by releasing some of its Linux GPU drivers as open-source. It started with the GPU kernels, which should allow for much easier troubleshooting by Linux developers. This would no doubt be helped along by thestatistically better bug reporting from Linux users. 

But it seems this release may not be quite as good as we initially hoped according to Asahi Linux developer <a href=«https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1524615058688724992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1524615060135768064%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.howtogeek.com%2F805004%2Fnvidia-releases-open-source-linux-gpu-drivers-with-a-catch%2F» target="_blank" data-url=«https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1524615058688724992?ref_src=» https: www.pcgamer.com>Hector Martin

(via Charopf). Martin posted a series of Tweets explaining that most of the kernel driver was actually just moved to firmware. The new open-source component interacts with this closed firmware, but most of the work seems to be still taking place behind Nvidia's closed doors.

So NVIDIA «released» their kernel driver as open source. By which they mean, they moved most