XGI, VIA Release Open Source Drivers

An anonymous reader writes "XGI has announced the release of open source drivers for its Volari family of graphics adapters. Efforts at X.Org to merge the new code into the head branch are already underway. Almost simultaneously, VIA has announced the immediate release of open source drivers for S3 Graphics UniChrome, VIA ProSavage and ProSavage DDR. Could these moves signal the beginning of a period of rapid improvement in Free drivers for video cards?"

Re:So what card?

[Rude Turnip]

Nvidia makes some pretty good cards.

All I know is

[Progman3K]

If the performance on those cards is anywhere near decent I'll be buying one.

Re:So what card?

[Andy Mitchell]

That very much depends on your application(s) and your budget. To be honest, if all your going to do is run X Windows it really doesnt matter too much if the driver is a bit suboptimal because all modern cards are darn fast for 2D applications.

What do they have to lose?-Their Shirt.

[Anonymous Coward]

"True, but a lot of hardware companies hoard their IP as though it has intrinsic value. They seem to assume that since it cost something to produce, it must be worth something."

One way to find out. Give it to your competitors.

Re:So what card?

[MoogMan]

I think what you're implying is that this release won't really make a huge effect on gamers per-se.

But then gamers don't use linux and that old argument.

I think the point is, there needs to be someone to slowly push graphics card manufacturers towards open source. And this (hopefully) is it. Eventually ATI and nVidia will (hopefully) follow suite.

Re:So what card?

[dsginter]

In my experience, if you are looking for the "best video", then you'll need to install Windows or buy a Mac. Don't get me wrong - I've been using Ubuntu on my PC at home for almost two months now but this has really showed me the value in a copy of Windows.

I have all these people telling me that I must be doing something wrong but they all get real quiet when I ask them to make an ISO of their drive for me to use.

Hopefully, the VIA hardware isn't envumbered with patents and the whole friggin' thing will be out there for the hackers to make right. Only at this point will OSS have a real desktop environment. Then they just need to sort out the whole KDE/Gnome/etc mess.

Great...

[TheCoop1984]

So, in return for them being one of the first gfx card makers to release OSS driver, possibly starting an OSS revolution in the graphics card/hardware industry, we melt their web server?

Re:So what card?

[gtoomey]

Unichrome is mainly for motherboards with embedded graphics eg ABIT VA-20 [abit-usa.com]

Dear Mr Coward

[Anonymous Coward]

We have noticed this development and we are taking notes in the event we become a second-rate video card vendor with pitiful marketshare. Until then, we'll be continuing to hoard our driver secrets so we can eventually kill nVidia and become the video card overloard. Pay no attention to the quality of our drivers compared to nVidia.

Sincerely, ATi

ps: When we become overlords, please do not continue to ask for free drivers, as we can not afford any insurgency in our dominion.

For Linux?

[lofi-rev]

From the download site:

To install the driver, save any unsaved work and close all applications then click on the driver download link (above). Choose the "Save File" option and save it to your folder under Windows where you file your drivers. Unzip the file. (To unzip the file right click and highlight "Extract All") Then double click on the Setup.exe file to run the installation program. Follow the prompts and restart at the end of the installation.

Do you need WINE installed too or something?

Re:So what card?

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny?! WTF! Moderators!