[ILUG] OT: PCI TV tuner card for 50 bills

[Paul Jakma]

On Wed, 25 Feb 2004, Liam Bedford wrote:

> It's getting pretty hard to get a machine without needing proprietary drivers
> to enable full
> functionality at this point:

> radeon 9500, 9600, 9700, 9800
> nvidia (anything)

Not everyone plays games Liam, not everyone needs 120fps in Unreal 
Tournament. So add:

- Matrox MGA-G200 and G400 
- Intel 810, 845 (or whatever it is) 
- radeon 7xxx and 8xxx (including the R200 (is it?) based FireGL)

> I'm not entirely sure that's all the truth. How do you deal with
> hardware/software like the madwifi stuff which claims there's no
> FCC approval if they don't obfuscate some of the code?

Linux hardware has had certification before. Eg, ISDN drivers in 
Germany, the Eicon Diva driver is self-checking and warns if it 
thinks it has been modified.

Further, arent there hacks in existence for the _binary_ drivers for
Centrino to change signal strength, etc? Ie, obfuscation/binary does
no good to protect a wholly software controlled radio-transceiver
from having settings tweaked.

> I know Paul Jakma has been vociferous about non-free video
> drivers..

:)

I've explained my reasons why to you in detail, and i reckon i'm not
the only one to hold those beliefs. In short, your stand on binary
drivers "i want to play UT, i dont care" is a significant danger to
the long-term health of linux.

Hopefully ultimately manufacturers will get a clue, and at least
start again to release specs, even if only for generation-1 hardware.  
Maybe the video market can get some more competition again, if only
for the mid and lower end.

> but I wonder how one is supposed to act?

With wallet? By sending emails?

> I have two options if I want to play Unreal Tournament 2004 on my
> laptop: use proprietary drivers use windows

Grand. That's fine.

At the same time though, let ATi and NVidia know that you want open 
drivers. Let them know that the instant one provides open drivers you 
will switch.

> It's easier to use Windows than install proprietary drivers (the
> ati fglrx drivers have horrible configuration) in linux...

Thankfully. The more painful it is to install binary drivers the
better.

> L.

regards,
-- 
Paul Jakma	paul at clubi.ie	paul at jakma.org	Key ID: 64A2FF6A
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