[sclug] Open-Source friendly graphics cards

[Alex Butcher]

On Tue, 2 Nov 2004, Taiyo Rawle wrote:

> Lets hope it takes off...
> 
> http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics

I can't see that there's any money in it.

If you only need 2D, there are plenty of cheap, good quality cards that work
fine with current Linux and XFree86/Xorg distros.

Those behind this project have recognised that 3D is important, but the
traditional manufacturers have cut their teeth developing (expensive, very
profitable) workstation-grade hardware, and only once the R&D has been
recouped do the features make it to (cheaper) consumer-grade hardware. Note
also, that many of the technologies for efficient 3D are (rightly or
wrongly) patented. Even the behemoths that are ATI and nVidia end up
licensing them.

Finally, there are already 3D-capable cards for which the programming
information is available, but no-one has taken up the gauntlet to write the
appropriate drivers.

Further, ATI used to write drivers for their Radeon hardware and donate them
to the XFree86 project for incorporation in the mainstream release.
Unfortunately, by the time XFree86 chose to incorporate them in their next
release, the hardware ATI wanted to use them to help sell was obsolete
and/or selling for a fraction of its original cost. Bearing that in mind, is
it any wonder that ATI has gone down the same path as nVidia - shipping
binary blobs plus a bit of glue code? I hope that Xorg is responsive enough
to cause them to re-assess this approach and try re-engaging with the
developers.

Not all problems are technological.

Best Regards,
Alex.
-- 
Alex Butcher      Brainbench MVP for Internet Security: www.brainbench.com
Bristol, UK                      Need reliable and secure network systems?
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