radeon driver heading in wrong direction :-(.

[Bruno Wolff III]

On Sat, Feb 06, 2010 at 13:26:12 -0800,
  Suvayu Ali <fatkasuvayu+linux at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> A bit OT, but what is the difference/pros-cons between User Mode and 
> Kernel Mode Setting? Can anyone refer me to some _not too technical_ 
> resource?

User mode is the old way of doing things. The only reason to want to use it
is when there is a problem with kernel mode. Eventually user mode support
is going to go away upstream, but probably not for a couple of years.

The fedora feature page
(http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/KernelModesetting) lists the
following benefits:
    * Improved Graphical Boot
    * Faster fast user switching
    * Seamless X server switching
    * Graphical panic messages

Also KMS is a prerequestite for being able to run X not as root. That is still
a long ways out, but should eventually happen.