ATI video comes out of the closet

[Les Mikesell]

Matthew Flaschen wrote:


>>>>> So far the nVidia video card on my motherboard has been the one
>>>>> biggest head acke in this computer. It is wonderful with Windows I
>>>>> hear but it sucks on Linux. Had I known....
>>>> Are you running the driver that nVidia gives away and fedora makes you
>>>> go out of your way to install and use?
>>> I think you mean nVidia makes you go out of the way.
>> No I don't mean that.  I don't have to make any extra effort for nVidia
>> drivers on Windows or Macs.
> 
> Oh, really?  You can get all the drivers you need directly from
> Microsoft?  Then what's the issue with Vista hardware?

What issue?  Has Microsoft stopped providing updates for XP yet?


>> nVidia themselves are doing more work for
>> the Linux version since they can't count on a stable interface.
> 
> And Windows has a stable interface?  Again, I refer you to Vista.

It is stable for many years at a time.

>> Fedora could redistribute the driver as provided by nVidia but chooses not to.
> 
> If they were willing to have hidden code they're legally unable to modify.

Or if they cared about their user experience...

>> It will be interesting to see how many people _really_ are able to do better than the vendor engineers
>> at writing drivers, though.
> 
> Of course, that's true if the devices aren't properly documented.  But
> the kernel hackers have already done wonders for devices with good docs,
> and even some without.

Firewire is still a good example.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
     lesmikesell at gmail.com