nvidia

[Ric Moore]

On Mon, 2007-10-29 at 01:38 -0600, Frank Cox wrote:
> On Mon, 29 Oct 2007 15:29:46 +0800
> Ed Greshko <Ed.Greshko at greshko.com> wrote:
> 
> > > If you depend on proprietary software, then Linux is not for you.  Microsoft
> > > and/or Apple products are a much better fit for your needs.
> > 
> > Never did care that much for blanket statements.
> > 
> > If I depend on say "Oracle" and since Oracle is proprietary I should not run
> > it on Linux?
> 
> You are taking a general statement and applying it to a very specific
> circumstance.
> 
> In the particular case cited, Linux may indeed be the answer you seek.
> However, in general terms, the solutions that folks like Les are looking for
> can be most easily found in places other than Linux.  Microsoft and Apple are
> the two largest examples of such places.

Frank, since when have you become a mind reader? I think you have some
notion that you can see clearly into his brain and can speak
authoritatively on what he thinks. 

I know Les very well. He's got some coding chops I'd die for. We both
ran into the same wall with the same application and the same identical
nVidia 5200 video cards. The nvidia rpms supplied by our 3rd party sites
are lacking SOMETHING with regards to openGL. I beat myself up for
months, trying to get the app to run correctly. So, Les volunteered out
of the blue to figure out what was wrong, from the very goodness of his
heart. I love him as a Brother for it. He couldn't get it to work
either. We both kept running into openGL problems and the Windows / Mac
users had reported no problems at all. Emails flew back and forth
between us trying to trouble shoot the damn thing. 

I don't know about you, but I bristle at the notion that they could make
happen so easily what had us completely stumped. So, I raged and swore,
determined that Linux, as a community, was not to be relegated to the
cheap seats as lusers. So, I finally beat on Lonnie and he told me to
install the nVidia package from them. 

Here's the saddest part of the ordeal. Reading all of this "my-way or
the highway" crap put me off from considering using something as EVIL as
a proprietary driver. Bad! Bad! No! No! Well, I finally tried it. It
worked. I told Les, he tried it, it worked. End of story. I lost a GD
pant-load of valuable learning and devel time ...several **months** at
least. Les lost quite a bit of his donated personal time too. THAT is
where he's coming from, and so do I.

I'm trying to develop a 3D educational environment aimed at reducing the
recidivism rate of prisoners coming out of prison back to the "Real
World". Les has helped out immeasurably. "Polite Society" is not kind to
guys and gals getting out. Inside the razor wire when you disrespect
someone, predictably you get punched in the face ...*real quick*. Take
someone that has lived like that for 5, 10 or 20 years, someone better
de-fuse him before he leaves. OR someone on this side of the wire gets
hurt to become the next new victim ...to the tune of 70 new victims for
every 100 released. You think I give one shit about some evil
proprietary driver? Should I when we have 1/4 million inmates being
released per year over the next 10 years and I really want this effort
to work in an otherwise Open-Source Fashion and keep Gates, Jobs and
their ilk off of it? 

I see the day coming when Linux will have something like CUPS for video
and everything will be peaches and cream. Like in the old days, we had
the choice of LPR (great for Daisy Wheels and line printers) or the
proprietary version of Adobe, if you wanted your nifty laser printer to
work at all. Everyone hated that too, back when. Same with OSS, it
filled a niche allowing some people (like myself) to make an odd-ball
(PAS16) sound card work when the kernel didn't seem to make it happen
correctly or at all. I paid my ten bucks to Hannu and was as happy as a
clam as the solution was quite cheap and worked beautifully. Back then
no one had a problem relaying this information to another in need of it,
either. Even at Red Hat. Later on, the problem became fixed and
continues to improve all the time. I like that and appreciate the work
by the people that make it happen. 

Alan, remember when the only Windows Machine at Red Hat was the one that
made the CD dupes, printed the labels and stuck them on automatically??
It was a collective groan (and well kept secret) for sure, but we lived
with it, proprietary and all. It got the job done that needed to be
done, and the only alternative was to pay someone 40 grand a year or
more to sit on a stool in the old "Red Hat Ready" hardware evaluation
area and do it all by hand ...one at a time. Damn skippy, the
proprietary solution at the time wasn't so EVIL that it could NOT be
tolerated, was it? <wink wink> You know I'm right and I just told the
world to make the point. 

The issue is not that Les or I insist that nVidia be installed on the
Dvd (which he has never written) but that when the need arises that
folks don't feel all intimidated from giving useful information that may
be needed, even if a couple of K-bytes get used on the list to convey
the information without mega-bytes of retaliation. I do know that
running software openGL is slower than hardware openGL. That is a
"truth" ... which is the "Right Thing(tm)". Becoming at least par with
the average Windows or Mac user is a good thing, too. Now more people
are less afraid to use Linux on the Croquet list after Les and I
reported the solution to their developers and their list members. 

We're discipling Linux, not condemning it. But if my personal need is
great enough, then I'll alter my FC install, taint the kernel and be
responsible for any problems that arise from it ...if only to make my
computer do what I need it to do. Ric
   

-- 
================================================
My father, Victor Moore (Vic) used to say:
"There are two Great Sins in the world...
..the Sin of Ignorance, and the Sin of Stupidity.
Only the former may be overcome." R.I.P. Dad.
Linux user# 44256 Sign up at: http://counter.li.org/
http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/oar
http://www.wayward4now.net  <---down4now too
================================================