[Gllug] Geforce2

[Mike Brodbelt]

On Tue, 2002-01-22 at 22:47, Vincent AE Scott wrote:
> Mike Brodbelt(mike at coruscant.demon.co.uk)@Tue, Jan 22, 2002 at 09:31:23PM +0000:

> > P.S. If anyone hadn't guessed, nVidia are a pet hate of mine. If using
> > binary only software to gain better hardware support was an acceptable
> > compromise, I'd be running Windows. IMO, nVidia's "support" does the
> > linux community no favours whatsoever.
> 
> It's not an ideal world, but i'm happy enough to be using the closed
> source drivers, it means i can play some cool games on linux.

You need neither nVidia nor closed source drivers to do that. Q3A and
Tribes 2 work well enough for me, as does the RTCW test, with no nVidia
hardware in sight.

> be able to share my net connection out with my SO quite so easily, while
> playing Return to catsle wolfenstein if i was running XP.  So i'm glad
> in a way they've done something.

There are alternatives out there. I use a Matrox G400, which while long
in the tooth these days, still gives me more than 75fps in Quake 3
Arena, which is enough to make me happy. For faster cards, the 3D
support for the Radeon is reportedly pretty solid in newer versions of
X, and they're fast cards.
 
> it's by no means ideal, and i hate having to upgrade the nVidia drivers.
> it means all my old kernels which i no longer have the exact source too,
> stop working with X.  leaving me with just the brand new kernel that i
> happen to have the source for.  

Worse than that, loading the module now sets a "taint" flag in your
kernel. Should it oops or otherwise crash, you can expect exactly no
attention whatsoever from any of the kernel developers. The taint
mechanism was put in place with the specific aim of making it easier to
ignore bug reports from people with nVidia drivers loaded.
 
> hopefully one day, when they have no competition left, they'll suddenly
> realize that they dont have any IP left to protect.  with the demise of
> 3dfx, i'm not too certain who they're afraid of anymore. 

Mostly ATI. In the 2D market, Matrox still produce significantly better
cards, but the Matrox 3D support is not at the same level as nVidia (and
Matrox are shipping a binary only HAL these days, which you need to
access certain features of the cards, so they're fast going downhill in
my opinion).

> But, without the closed source drivers there would be no attempt at a
> gamers linux OS.

I still think there are anough alternatives that that is not true. If
you want that situation of choice to persist, now is the time to vote -
by putting your money in someone else's pocket.

The Radeon cards quite happily give them a run for their money, and ATI
show a far more enlightened attitude to Linux users and open source.
nVidia have never had any money out of me, and they're not getting any
unless they change their attitude, so they're not a monopoly yet.


> nVidia are 3D GFX now.  no if's buts or maybes.  we
> are at theyre mercy, hopefully they'll eventually recognise the almost
> monopolistic hold theyve worked so hard to attain, and show us the
> source...

The closer they get to being a monopoly, the less chance you have of
ever seeing source from them. When was the last time you saw open source
from Microsoft (and no, Wince under the shared source license doesn't
count).

Mike.


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