> Personally, I think that it's far more important for nVidia and other
> manufacturers to just release complete documentation---including

The problem is that nVidia's hands are already tied. They've very 
publically stated that some of the technology they use in their 
products is itself under an NDA, so they simply don't have the power to 
release information about their cards to us even if they did want to. I 
believe a majority at nVidia does want to release information to us, 
because at the moment they're stuck supporting the FreeBSD and Linux 
kernel modules themselves.

It's not that they're being obtuse: often people make nVidia out to be 
this big uncaring corporation who's too interested in the bottom line 
to simply make the decision to open up documentation for their 
hardware, as though such a decision is a mere CEO penstroke away from 
happening. The question in essence then becomes, "It's easy to release 
the documentation. Why don't they just do it?"

This isn't the case, and they've already talked publically about their 
tied hands in many forums.