[CS-FSLUG] Graphic Card Preferences

[John Mark Clayton]

This thread has been interesting to read.  I want to buy a new box soon and
will
be using this information.
What about soundcards?  They seems to have as many issues as video cards.
What cards have people had good results?  I stuck with the SB cards, but my
ISA card is no longer supported in Ubuntu.
Thanks,
Mark


On 11/6/06, Micah Yoder <yoderm at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Thanks for the welcome!
>
> > Let me re-phrase.  On many Linux lists NVIDIA is described as
> > one of the more Linux-friendly video card vendors.  I am guessing
> > they refer to the release of info. necessary to the writing of
> > Linux drivers?
>
> No, actually NVidia steadfastly continues to *refuse* to release info.
> NVidia and ATI both write drivers in-house, while trying to "protect"
> their intellectual property.
>
> > Hmmm.  Does your definition of Linux-friendly require
> > NVIDIA to write and support Linux-specific drivers
> > tied only to the several current versions of the Linux
> > kernel or some other standard, please?
>
> No, they shouldn't need to do that.  They should simply release open
> source drivers, or the specs so that others can write them, and get
> them integrated into the mainline kernel and the x.org release.
> *That* is Linux-friendly!  Then it will work with any distribution, on
> any architecture (not just x86).  Also the drivers will automatically
> be kept up to date with the changes in kernel and x.org code.
>
> > When you say "integrated" you mean fixed to an Intel motherboard?
>
> Yes.  I know it's a problem for some.  I plan to get a new PC next
> year some time and would otherwise prefer AMD, but may have to get an
> Intel for this reason alone.  (Granted, the Core 2 Duo chip is pretty
> tempting anyway.)
>
> > ATI has traditionally been considered uncooperative, have they
> > now begin the release of good Linux drivers?
>
> Not really, although their binary blob drivers aren't *too* bad.  I
> use them on my Fedora Core workstation in the office.  (I didn't have
> a choice in the graphics card when they gave me the box ...)
>
> What has happened is that the community has managed to
> reverse-engineer the Xnnn cards to the extent that they supposedly
> work fairly well.  There is a similar project trying to
> reverse-engineer NVidia cards, but they don't have anything working
> yet.
>
> I may try the open source R300 drivers on my workstation if I can find
> other reports of people running them on FC6.  So far I haven't.
>
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-- 
clayton256 at gmail.com
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