14 DAY TRIAL // AMD is making a very important decision for its future, and it looks like the company is orienting itself towards open source, by pushing for an open source AMDGPU Linux Driver and GPUOpen, a set of similar tools aimed at developers.
Like all major companies, AMD has a really hard time explaining what they are actually doing. Even if you have AMD hardware and you have some technical knowledge, it's still difficult to understand what the company is planning. People see open source, and they assume they are open sourcing their software products. That's only partly true, but the situation is more complex than people imagine.
AMD is now in a difficult position as the number two in the market. They know this, and they are trying to become more competitive. This is one of the reasons for the creation of the Radeon Technologies Group, which has already made quite a splash with its Crimson driver.
The best way for AMD to become competitive right now is to make sure that as many people as possible are using their tools and hardware. The best way to do that is to make a lot of the software open source. It's a tactic used by other companies, like Tesla Motor. Elon Musk announced a while back that all the patents had been opened in the spirit of open source, for the advancement of electric vehicle technology.
AMD is doing the opposite of Nvidia
Making open source tools sounds like a great idea, but let's see what this is all about. The new GPUOpen initiative is actually about "Unprecedented GPU Control," "Large collection of effects, tools, libraries & SDKs," and "Open Source content hosted on GitHub."
This is a response to Nvidia's tools, GameWorks, and it aims to do the same thing, but without any of the restrictions.
The other side of the coin is that the Radeon Technologies Group are also working on the AMDGPU Linux Driver, which should become a standard in the Linux world. The idea is to have proper support for basic functions, in an open source driver implemented at the kernel level.
Here comes the twist. Some users were hoping that they would finally get to ditch the proprietary driver and go all open source. That's not happening. The technology used by the Radeon GPUs won't be unveiled to everyone, so if you want to play a game or take advantage of the full power of AMD hardware, you'll need to install the proprietary driver, which will be under the name of Crimson, most likely.
Below you can see the differences between the two drivers, and you can also check the entire PDF for more details about AMD's open source plans.
