Operating Systems > Linux and UNIX

Useless ATI drivers (fglrx)

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GenuineAdvantage:
DRI, no comment... I think people are just afraid that nvidia will somehow taint the open source frame. The humongous Microsoft set out specifically to take down linux! A little driver will do it by trying to run well? I don't see it.

piratePenguin:

--- Quote from: H_TeXMeX_H ---Well, I have a question (ok, many questions):

Why do you not want non-free drivers ?
--- End quote ---
Because I don't need them.

--- Quote ---I mean say the nVidia drivers went open-source tomorrow ... would you instantly change your mind just cuz they're free ?
--- End quote ---
That would mean my next graphics card would almost definitely be an Nvidia one (but still not my soundcard lol. Their sound drivers are shit-old). Not only because free drivers are available, but because Nvidia gave us free drivers. Noone would've needed to kill themselves reverse engineering the cards like they basically do with the ATi cards.

--- Quote ---What would you do if the nVidia drivers were free ? How would you take advantage of this ? I mean would you try to modify the driver code ?
--- End quote ---
Not likely. I might peek at it, or try to fix simple bugs but still that's not likely.

My OS, whenever I ever make it, will be able to offer 3d acceleration for Nvidia cards outta the box. Same with Ubuntu, SUSE, etc. It would be the neatest thing in a long time. I'd be able to play whatever I want outta the box on any half-decent OS on all Nvidia cards, something I already kinda enjoy, but not-thanks to ATi.

--- Quote ---As I said before you CAN access the source code for the nVidia drivers and even modify it yourself, you just can't redistribute it modified or not.
--- End quote ---
Isn't it just the smallest possible part of the source code that's distributed?

--- Quote ---I just don't see the benefits open-source nVidia drivers would offer you and how you could take advantage of them in a meaningful way, that you cannot do now.
--- End quote ---
Other than what I've mentioned, there's a pretty big effort to get those free ATi drivers developed and working. I'd far rather use whatever they produce as long as I can, and report bugs when I can etc.


Even if Opera had Firefox's extension system, with the extensions I basically depend on for web-development (firebug, livehttpheaders, tamperdata, and the web-dev toolbar (which I know is available on Opera (and IE) in some shape or form)), and even if it did everything plain-better than Firefox (which it does not.. in particular Firefox 2 got session-restore right - much better than Opera), and had the auto-update feature too, I would still not use Opera (as my primary browser) as long as it remains non-free, until using i.e. supporting Firefox is a major inconvenience.

H_TeXMeX_H:
Hmmm ... well I guess you're set on using only truly free software. Well, that's fine I guess. I don't quite see a reason not to use non-free drivers as long as they are available free of charge.

Do you use non-free codecs ? If you do ... how do you explain yourself ? How do you watch pr0n ? ... hehe ;)

piratePenguin:

--- Quote from: H_TeXMeX_H ---Hmmm ... well I guess you're set on using only truly free software. Well, that's fine I guess. I don't quite see a reason not to use non-free drivers as long as they are available free of charge.

Do you use non-free codecs ? If you do ... how do you explain yourself ? How do you watch pr0n ? ... hehe ;)
--- End quote ---
I dunno which codecs are free and which aren't.. Some packages won't be packed in distros like Ubuntu 'cause of software patents, which don't hold in the EU. So my OS will pack them (as long as they're free software), and my OS will proudly be illegal in the US :D

I know I have at least the w32codecs package installed here, as well as Opera (for testing web-pages) and Enemy Territory (won't be playing that anymore though) and Skype (I'll try and use OpenWengo before sticking to Skype (which I've yet to use) though).

I'm gonna compile an LFS install someday soon to see what file formats are/aren't possible to be used on a completely free system, since I've no idea. Didn't Real say they're gonna provide an open-source way to decode WMV? That would be real cool of them, if other programs could use their free library.

If I knew of an effort to reverse engineer every audio/video format out there, and if the results of their efforts were pretty good for what I need, then it'd be a different story.

cymon:

--- Quote from: piratePenguin ---The free (as in freedom) ati driver isn't that bad, especially if you have a radeon

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