[Gllug] Geforce2

[Vincent AE Scott]

David Damerell(damerell at chiark.greenend.org.uk)@Wed, Jan 23, 2002 at 12:36:33PM +0000:
> On Wednesday, 23 Jan 2002, Vincent AE Scott wrote:
> >For the time being at least, nVidia is the market leader.  3DFX had it,
> >and they lost it.  undoubteldy nVidia will eventually loose it aswell.
> >But each year there seems to be less and less choice in the GFX card
> >business.  IMHO, Matrox are going to be next to vanish.  Who knows, NV
> >may actually achieve total dominance in the market place, and become the
> >MS of 3D.
> 
> I can see three possibilities here.
> 1) Nvidia will dominate no matter what.
> 2) Nvidia may dominate, but other companies may just squeeze enough
> market share to fight back if enough people buy their cards.
> 3) Nvidia's current market share is as good as it will get; the next
> Nvidia is just about to appear.
> 
> I don't believe #2 is a non-zero probability. That's where we come in.
> 
> >Come on tho, do you honestly think that the minority linux users out
> >there, who actually use their consumer power and vote with there wallets
> >will even appear in the FD's reports at nVidia?
> 
> Of course. The graphics card market is incredibly cutthroat; the
> companies fight for every customer they can get. Of course, if Linux
> users are stupid enough to buy Nvidia cards anyway, _then_ we don't
> matter.
> 
> Mac enthusiasts - a similar size group to Linux users - can keep a
> complete hardware line alive; and the Linux community have
> successfully fought NIC manufacturers and SCSI card manufacturers to
> the point that there is no shortage of cards with open specifications
> and free drivers. Why should we not do the same to 3D card vendors?


i dont think your compairing like for like.  SCSI and NIC cards all
operate to a generic specification.  they cant as easily branch off in
their own proprietry way.  whereas 3D cards are very much patented up to
the eye balls with proprietry technology.  

 
> >For all the talks i've seen RMS and ESR give, for all the people that
> >belive the GPL will save the world, i wish it was true.  but i'm a
> >realist, closed source works for the masses. 
> 
> This would be the same kind of realist who believed that we'd never
> see a complete free operating system, that a free Web server would
> never be popular, that companies like IBM would never take free
> software seriously, that Microsoft would never feel GNU/Linux was a
> threat, etc.

no.  it's the kind of realist who admits that 90% of the world uses MS.
and that a good chunk of them are in fact happy with what it does, and
probably dont know any different.  The computer and tech savy people
represent a small fraction of the IT using population.  Altho i may
acknowledge that for my uses linux does everything i need it to, it
certainly doesnt do it the same way that the 90% knows and understands.
it's almost like trying to convince north americans that a standard
gearbox on a car is better than an automatic.  you might be right, but
changing a culture?  now thats difficult.


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