Nvidia Open-Source Drivers

Wait, weren't Nvidia drivers finally open-sourced not so long ago?

What is the story around linux drivers for the GPU?

Intel GPU drivers are open on Linux. How is that worse than what AMD are doing?

Intel and AMD have released open source drivers. Nvidia is sticking to the patent and DRM excuses.

GPU drivers are notorious for being out of tree and even there most GPU drivers over the years have been upstream. Even if you limit to just GPUs AMD are not the same as Nvidia. The in-kernel AMD driver is the primary one these days and even Nvidia has finally relented and is finally helping move at least the kernel driver upstream. That Nvidia's closed-source driver has been a mess for all these years is just a further example of how the Linux model is much superior to the Windows one.

nvidia drivers generally work but will remain unsupported for as long as they are not fully open source. Providing support requires the ability to debug the driver when issues arise.(Improvements to Nvidia support is accepted, if it is a general improvement and not just a hack around a driver bug.)

Isn't this an issue with Nvidia not releasing open source drivers ?

Nvidia's Linux driver is more or less the same as their Windows (and MacOS, etc...) driver. They can't just open source it. Intel has an open source Linux driver and a closed source Windows driver.

Nvidia has been good when it comes to proprietary drivers on Linux, but they've never helped out with open source drivers. Then this happened on the same day as the SteamOS announcement. It's quite a massive coincidence if it is one. Nvidia's refusal to help out with open source drivers has been a controversial issue in the Linux community for at least a decade or so. I'd be very surprised if SteamOS played no role in this.

the nvidia driver is proprietary. If nvidia opens the source, maybe they would ship with that instead.