John Madden wrote:
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>> On (25/11/04 22:10), Paul Jakma didst pronounce:
>>> John Madden wrote:
[snip]
>>>My point : while this machine isn't exactly bleeding edge, it's
>>>certainly cutting edge, and everything in it is supported.
>>>>No, that hardware is quite *badly* supported by Linux - because of
>>the idiocy of NVidias' policies on specs.
>>>> When you say badly supported, do you mean by open source drivers, or
> just in general? I see "supported" as meaning "it works". I mean, most
> hardware on sale now is "supported" by Windows, meaning it works. But
> you won't get the source to the drivers.
>> I'm happy enough that companies like NVidia are even recognising that
> Linux user's should be supported aswell. Whether that means releasing
> specs or writing drivers is up to the company.
>By producing binary only, broken, unpatchable drivers? The more people
buy from these people, the more they think this is the way to go.
And what are you going to do if you decide to run a 64 bit OS on your
AMD64? Do Nvidia provide 64 bit linux binary only drivers yet? Do they
work well?
What would you do if you went to a powerpc box and wanted to run linux?
>>>I installed FC2 Linux on an SMP Opteron box a few months ago,
>>and I had no issues at all. SATA: no problems (Silicon Image 3114,
>>they gave docs to Jeff), NIC: no problems at all (Broadcom Tigon3,
>>they gave docs to Dave Miller).
>>>>You picked probably the worst chipset to run linux on.
>>>> I don't see it that way. Certainly I could've picked a better one, but
> when the hardware is supported (my view of the word), I'm happy. In the
> end, I still want a working desktop.
>>>>>Hell, Linux had AMD64 support before Microsoft, so early A64
>>>machines would've depended on Linux (or maybe some of the other
>>>unix clones -- don't really know) to run in 64-bit mode.
>>>>Linux ran on AMD64 before there was ever silicon. AMD provided AMD64
>>simulators to help porting effort. I think NetBSD and Linux were the
>>only OSes to run on AMD64 when it was first released.
>>>> My point exactly, so I don't see Linux being as far behind as others do.
>You can't get a directX 9 class video card that works with open source
linux drivers, as far as I can see. This is my major bugbear. I'd like
to get a new video card, but I don't want to buy one I can only use
properly with binary only drivers. In fact, it's entirely possible I
wouldn't be able to use those binary only drivers, as I run my AMD64 in
64 bit mode.
Binary only drivers are wrong long term. They're a short term fix to the
IP problems that Nvidia/Intel/ATI et al have.
L.
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