DVI output, ATI or nVidia

Dr. Michael J. Chudobiak mjc at avtechpulse.com
Wed Jun 27 15:53:41 UTC 2007


>> Hmm, I didn't order my Intel GPU direct from Intel either, but I can
>> still access the driver bugzilla. I guess you finally have some evidence
>> of how open source support can be better.
> 
> Different perhaps.  I don't see how that makes it better other than
> listing hundreds, if not thousands of bugs that haven't been fixed,
> and may never be fixed.

Well, a list of unfixed bugs would tell you what bugs were real, how 
common they were, who you could contact to see if workarounds were 
found, what level of development is occurring, and whether your 
particular issue is likely to be addressed any time soon.


> I'm sorry but I'm not following you here.  Are you stating that having
> the source for the driver allows you to plan your hardware
> requirements?

No. I'm saying that in my experience, dealing with the hardware quirks 
and limitations imposed by the intel driver are easier to manage than 
the software quirks of the closed drivers.

Once you know you need DDC/DI, you buy NEC Multisyncs (or whatever). 
Problem solved. (And the driver developers have indicated that the 
DDC/DI requirement will be removed in the future, incidentally.)

Binary drivers and open kernels, however, make a square peg <> round 
hole system. It's just hard to maintain over the long-term.


> I'm not even making that argument.  I'm just saying that people are
> seemingly unaware that the market segment which finds Intel's graphics
> offerings sufficient is a rather small segment from a revenue
> perspective.  Most people are unaware of the fact that desktop usage
> is not where most companies get the bulk of their revenue, other than
> by sheer volume.  Its done either by quantity or quality.  And no, i'm
> not implying that Intel's drivers or hardware are low quality, just
> that they are going on quantity to make money.

OK, nvidia doesn't want to spend the effort on a decent open source 
driver because the market isn't worth it. That's fine, and that's 
nvidia's call. But for the linux user, it sucks, and Intel's approach is 
better - for the average, non-movie-editing user. The nvidia approach 
only benefits power video users. Let's not pretend that nvidia is a good 
solution for the typical user.

Of course, it doesn't explain why nvidia doesn't actively support the 
nouveau driver.


> Can't or won't?  I've seen many kernel backtraces from systems that
> happened to have closed source drivers on them, where the backtrace
> never even made a passing reference to the closed source driver and
> the developers refused to look at it.  Sure, there's a chance that the
> closed source driver contributed to, or even caused the problem, but
> there's an even better chance that it was completely uninvolved.  This
> stance seems more to do with religious zealotry than technical
> limitations.  And its certainly their right to stand up for their
> principles.  However, hiding behind them is something entirely
> different.

Hmm, kernel developers are religious zealots and I'm a fan boy. Did you 
run this past the PR department? :-)

The kernel developers are busy, why should they cooperate with you if 
you won't cooperate with them?


- Mike




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