>From: "Levi Bard" <taktaktaktaktaktaktaktaktaktak@gmail.com>
>Reply-To: slug@nks.net
>To: slug@nks.net
>Subject: Re: [SLUG] Cheap'n good laptops for Linux
>Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 14:20:42 -0600
>
>IMO the part that makes it immoral is that you NEED the driver in
>order to use the hardware that you've purchased. Which means?
>CompanyX goes out of business, my hardware stops working. CompanyX
>decides they don't want to support my hardware, my hardware stops
>working. CompanyX decides they want to force me to upgrade, my
>hardware stops working.
>
>With respect to NVidia specifically: I'm a Free Software advocate,
>often rabidly so (no, that frothing at the mouth is only toothpaste, I
>swear!). There are basically two companies producing usable consumer
>3D chipsets right now: Ati and NVidia. Neither one of them offers
>driver source (although iirc Ati has in the past). The difference is
>that NVidia has consistently and dependably supported its hardware on
>Free Software operating systems (including FreeBSD) and multiple
>architectures. Ati, on the other hand, didn't have ANY driver for
>64-bit GNU/Linux for at least two years after it became available
>mainstream, and the default cards shipping in the majority of amd64
>machines (laptops in particular) were Ati cards. Even now, their
>drivers are buggy and difficult to install, even for people that know
>what they're doing.
>
>So, with the lack of a Free alternative, NVidia is the much more
>Freedom-friendly distributor in spite of the lack of a Free driver.
But there _are_ free (libre) alternatives. The 'radeon' driver provides
hardware accelerated 3D for several ATI chipsets. Intel has been working
with Xorg developers and the 'i810' driver provides hardware accelerated 3D
for several Intel chipsets. There is also the 'via' driver which provides
accelerated 3D for VIA (Unichrome) chipsets.
This is the hardware that Free (libre) Software advocates should be buying,
promoting, and using. This is the hardware that offers you freedom _and_
functionality out-of-the-box with most Linux distributions. For those who
value freedom (and who desire 3D acceleration), NVIDIA should be the last
choice.*
* I'm not sure if any free (libre) 3D accelerated drivers exist for any
Matrox chipsets so I cannot comment on Matrox.
Jonathon
_________________________________________________________________
Add a Yahoo! contact to Windows Live Messenger for a chance to win a free
trip!
http://www.imagine-windowslive.com/minisites/yahoo/default.aspx?locale=en-us&hmtagline
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked
Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages
posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Aug 01 2014 - 19:28:45 EDT