radeon driver heading in wrong direction :-(.
Marko Vojinovic
vvmarko at gmail.com
Sun Jan 31 16:01:45 UTC 2010
On Sunday 31 January 2010 09:28:40 Kevin Kofler wrote:
> Marko Vojinovic wrote:
> > Since you don't mind using closed-source drivers... :-) If the graphics
> > card in your machine is not integrated (ie. is replaceable), my advice is
> > to go buy an nVidia card. They at least provide nonzero support for
> > contemporary Linux. And if it is integrated, next time you go buy a
> > motherboard/laptop --- do choose carefully... ;-)
>
> Recommending proprietary drivers in general and NVidia in particular is a
> very bad idea, they'll come to bite you in the ass sooner or later, and
> with NVidia there's no alternative with OpenGL support. (Nouveau
> reportedly works great for 2D these days though.)
There is a status matrix for nouveau:
http://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/FeatureMatrix
and reverse-engineering is progressing quite well, on a daily basis, according
to info I see on their mailing list.
As for 3D and closed source drivers... If you buy a nVidia card, you can use
their closed source drivers, and they basically Just Work. If you buy an ATI
card, you can use... oops, sorry... you *cannot* use their closed source
drivers, because they do not support your version of X. Or you can opt for
open source radeon driver... oops, sorry... you *cannot* opt for radeon(hd)
driver because ATI did *not* disclose the specs for their HD family of cards.
<sarcasm>
And as you know, ATI is very open-source-friendly, unlike those nVidia guys...
</sarcasm>
So when it comes to 3D support for Linux and Fedora, some talk the talk, some
walk the walk. Decide for yourself who is more useful to you.
And there is of course Intel, which does provide open source 3D drivers. But
Intel hardware is just, well, inferior when it comes to performance. If I need
serious 3D graphics, nVidia and ATI are only choices. If I don't, then it
doesn't matter much, any graphics card will do (and there are open source 2D
drivers for all available cards these days).
Best, :-)
Marko
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