[ILUG] [comp.os.linux.hardware] Graphics card fully supported by Open Source drivers!

[Richard Corden]

John Orford <john.orford at gmail.com> writes:

> Although this is positive, somebody on the kernel mailing list pointed out 
> that linux can do 2d pretty well already, the offer being to build a 2d 
> graphics card.
>
> So I doubt it's all that viable...

Again, I should point out that my motivation had very little to do
with graphics cards and much more to do with promoting linux as a
target OS for vendors.  i.e. the petition and the general lack of
interest hardware vendors show towards linux.

I'm sure that in choosing hardware, people here would like to choose
the box with the 'Tux' label rather than "Designed for Windows XP"?

In another post, Paul pointed out that there's projects to reverse
engineer cards today.  I'd say this is how most hardware gets
supported under linux.  But personally, I don't find this
satisfactory.

The only reason that I still have windows on my laptop is so that I
can use the TV out feature of my card, the vary rare time I want to
watch a DVD on my TV.  I have a Radeon Mobility M7, and it does mostly
what I need.  The exception being poor OpenGL support (very flickery)
and no TV out.

Since its now a relatively old card, I'd doubt I will ever manage to
get TV out up and running fully (have tried atitvout).  The OpenGL
issue probably is fixed now, but I haven't updated the dri drivers in
a while.

Recently, not sure if it was on this list, it was reccommended not to
buy cutting edge hardware when targetting linux as it probably will
have issues with driver support.  Isn't it a bit of a shame to have to
think like that?

Regards,


Richard





>
>
>
> Pada Kamis 25 November 2004 15:47, Richard Corden menulis:
>> Attaching files doesn't work.  I'll just paste the contents of the
>> message:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> In my experience, and apparently the experience of others, finding a
>> graphics card which is supported by open source drivers is a bit of a
>> challenge.  Either the open source driver support is poor or limited,
>> or there are simply no open source drivers at all.  Many people resort
>> to buying used cards from eBay.
>>
>> Frustrated, I have decided to start a project to solve the problem.
>> Since I am a chip designer, and I work for a company that sells
>> graphics cards, I decided to approach management with the idea, and
>> they agreed that if I could justify it economically, we would do it.
>> The primary objective is to produce a graphics product which has fully
>> open documentation and fully open source driver.
>>
>> When I first brought up the idea on the Linux Kernel Mailing List, it
>> received quite a bit of attention.  Lots of discussion on LKML
>> resulted in an article on kerneltrap.org, followed by a link from
>> Slashdot.
>>
>> Now, there is a mailing list dedicated to this project which can be
>> found at:
>> http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics
>>
>> A preliminary feature spec can be found at:
>> http://open-graphics.duskglow.com/openspec.pdf or
>> http://www.techsource.com/Open_Graphics/Open_Graphics_Spec.pdf
>>
>> In addition, one of the list members put online a petition pertaining
>> to pricing of the proposed graphics card:
>> http://www.petitiononline.com/3dc4rdlb/petition.html
>> (I think the petition will be valuable feedback for the company to
>> determine viability.)
>>
>> As someone who uses Linux as his primary platform, both at home and at
>> work, I would really love to see something like this come to fruition.
>>
>> Unfortunately, the attention people have paid to this project has
>> started to wane.  I figure either people really aren't that
>> interested, or they just don't know about it.  I decided to test the
>> waters by posting to a few different forums around on the web.  It
>> turns out that there are plenty of interested people, but they just
>> haven't heard about it because word hasn't spread.
>>
>> Although my employer is capable of and willing to help me to market
>> this, they have not taken an intrusive role in the project, in part
>> because they understand that this is not a normal project.  This is
>> more of a community project than it is a "Tech Source" project, and
>> they have respected that.  Unfortunately, being an engineer rather
>> than a sales person, I haven't had huge success on my own in
>> generating the necessary awareness among those who would be interested
>> in this sort of thing.
>>
>> To that end, I would like to humbly ask interested parties who read
>> this to please pass the word around.  (And also participate in the
>> discussions and development process.)
>>
>> I hope you don't see this as a plea for free advertizing but rather as
>> an opportunity to take part in the development of graphics hardware
>> which is compatible with Free Software principles.  I honestly believe
>> that there is a major need, and I would like to be part of meeting
>> that need.
>>
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>>
>> Timothy Miller
>> Tech Source, Inc.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Richard Corden
>> To reply remove 's' from address
> -- 
> Irish Linux Users' Group
> http://www.linux.ie/mailman/listinfo/ilug/

-- 
Richard Corden
To reply remove 's' from address