[akoncius]

linux development is one of those areas where physical absence is not required in order to participate in discussion and to collaborate with other participants, so it sounds to me more like excuse rather than proper explanation why nvidia decided to go another route :)

[jjoonathan]

Yes, but there is an argument to be had that sole ownership and lack of design-by-committee is exactly why NVIDIA can put out better APIs.

Money and proximity to hardware development would be the competing factors, and normally I'd like to pin the attribution on them, but there's just one small problem: I've been on a bunch of committees and they have pushed my estimation of typical committee dysfunction to extraordinary levels.