[ILUG] This again!

[Mel]

This really needs a FAQ. I was looking through the archive and couldn't
see a concrete answer on what graphics card to buy and which was the best
one to support.

One one hand I have

1. Creative Labs 16MB Graphics Blaster Riva TNT AGP Graphics Card

This looked like a great card until I saw the line - "Finally, with
Creative's own proprietary, fully accelerated drivers for Windows 95,
Windows 98 and Windows NT, along with support for Microsoft's DirectX
architecture and OpenGL". This (for obvious reasons) is not a hell a lot
of good to me. But I thought Kate said before that this was nearly
supported and was waiting for XFree 4.0 (true?) to come out for TNT to be
supported. So - is Riva TNT a standard(?) or an implementation by creative
labs and what does TNT mean in comparison to Voodoo? Is there an X server
that takes advantage of it and will the OpenGL support and an X server
stand in for "Proprietary Drivers" enough? 

Price - 60 quid ex vat

2. Diamond Monster Fusion 16MB Banshee 2D/3D AGP Graphics Card

This is based on Voodoo Banshee and seems like the better card but AFAIK,
the banshee X server is still in Alpha stage. Is this true or has anyone
experience with the card? It doesn't say where it's drivers come out of
but I'm guessing with an X server and OpenGL/MESA, this wouldn't make much
odds. To me, it *****seems**** to be the better card for Linux but as I'm
not too hot on hardware, I'm not too sure.

Price - 79 quid ex vat

Could anyone enlighten me please because I don't want to buy a great card
that is no good for Linux? and sorry for bringing up this thread yet again
- it needs a damn FAQ (which I couldn't find if it does exist). If people
are upset, mail me personally off list.

	Mel