Dell Asking ATI For Better Linux Drivers 291
Open Source IT writes "According to a presentation at Ubuntu Live 2007, Dell is working on getting better ATI drivers for Linux for use in its Linux offerings. While it is not known whether the end product will end up as open source, with big businesses like Google and Dell now behind the push for better Linux graphics drivers, hopefully ATI will make the smart business decision and give customers what they want."
Nothing for you to see here... (Score:4, Insightful)
GPL or nothing (Score:3, Insightful)
This may help a lot (Score:5, Insightful)
While Dell doesn't have a lot of fans on Slashdot, they may also be able to get a lot more hardware supported as well.
Strange bedfellows, but...
Re:Better drivers? (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh yeah. Completely. (Score:5, Insightful)
Totally. Unless, well... unless you want to some stuff that requires working, fast drivers. In that unlikely circumstance the drivers would be very useful.
When it comes to closed systems like video cards and their drivers, I think only a fool would turn up his nose at a binary simply because it doesn't come with source code. They should, of course, provide it for any GPL'd libraries they use.
I guess I'm a pragmatist. (Score:5, Insightful)
Endless hand wringing (Score:5, Insightful)
ATI Needs to produce better Linux drivers --> ATI announces they really like Linux --> ATI never produces drivers
keep exciting everyone enough to cause this constant hand wringing?
They are not going to ever really support Linux well. If that's not clear after 12 years of the above cycle, then you haven't been paying attention. Move on.. Get a board with an Intel integrated GPU if you want totally open. Get an Nvidia card if you don't care about open, but want working accelerated drivers.
If ATI does somehow produce open specs or drivers, great.. think about buying one then. In the mean time, vote with your dollars, buy something else.
Re:GPL or nothing (Score:4, Insightful)
Just publish the source to whatever you have and see what the community makes of it. How could it possibly hurt?
Re:This may help a lot (Score:5, Insightful)
My immediate thought when I read the headline was, "And this is the answer to all those people who asked, 'Why should I care if Dell sells computers with Ubuntu?"
I remember when that story broke, and loads of people were saying, "I use Linux, but I'm not going to buy a Dell," or "Well I don't use Ubuntu, I use [insert distro here], so this doesn't help me!"
Re:Endless hand wringing (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Oh yeah. Completely. (Score:2, Insightful)
Nice attempt to dismiss arguments using invective. Perhaps you should read what Theo de Raadt has to say about the security implications of binary blobs.
When it comes to Theo, you might think he's an asshole, but if that's the case, then he's an assole who knows his shit.
Re:GPL or nothing (Score:3, Insightful)
Your opinion is that only open free code is of value.
However, in the real world, a lot of things won't get done unless someone is compensated in some way.
Over 45 years, I've seen that most people who declare things should be free do not contribute a bit of their time to help things be free. They want to be compensated for their time but they want to get everything free.
Given a choice between no driver and a closed driver that works and is installed as a binary object, I have to disagree with you.
Since ATI is a hardware company, I think they'd be foolish to ignore a rapidly growing portion of the market to sell their hardware too. However, if that market doesn't buy enough cards to pay the salary ($150k a year with benefits) of the driver developer then ATI is being extremely rational to blow them off. $150k would probably require a minimum of 20k card sales per year on linux boxes.
Re:GPL or nothing (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Oh yeah. Completely. (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually I didn't notice I had done so. My apologies.
In my defense it slipped out because "fool" seemed like a description rather than an insult. People who need security above performance can use existing open drivers. Slow, but secure. People who require performance are more likely to be gamers or artists - but probably gamers. For them using a binary from a manufacturer is probably not verboten, or even a bad idea.
And somewhere in the middle is the guy who wants performance, hates binaries, and has to choose between his technology-based morality and his desire to make use of his fancy new hardware.
And dismissing a binary simply because it's a binary, without even considering where the best option lies, seems like a fool to me.
Good heavens! (Score:5, Insightful)
My english done gone busted itself all up inside.
I really don't care... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Useless? stupid zealots (Score:3, Insightful)
- more stability
- AIX support
- proper Xinerama support
- hardware end-of-life cycle when the user decides it, not when ATI decides it
I'm sure you can find a few on your own.
Re:Endless hand wringing (Score:3, Insightful)
If anyone can get ATI to pony up working drivers for linux, it's DELL.
However, I'm still waiting for the fat lady to sing on this one
Re:Oh yeah. Completely. (Score:3, Insightful)
While it's obviously not as transparent as open source, you could always disassemble it if you're really bothered? Or you could just say thanks for actually writing this in the first place, and then use it to drive your display. They have no obligation to provide source, especially when they are using 3rd party licensed technologies...
Re:Nothing for you to see here... (Score:3, Insightful)
I use to have a bit of respect when there was open source 3D accelerated drivers for some of the older Radeons, while nVidia had none, but right now, screw that. I just want the thing to work.
Re:GPL or nothing (Score:1, Insightful)
You can and will get compensated for your work under a 'free as in freedom' open-source model. That's one of the reasons the GPL exists - to give authors credit for 'free as in freedom' work.
Re:GPL or nothing (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem with giving away driver source code is that it inhibit a company from being able to recover its research and development costs effectively because of the likelihood of somebody else figuring out the hardware interface specs from the driver and reverse engineering a compatible product for a fraction of the cost (because figuring out a way to do something that somebody else has already done is a lot easier than inventing the idea in the first place), and it would price the first company's product out of the market before they've recovered their R&D costs.
Re:ATI Driver performance (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:AMD *will* soon deliver open graphics drivers (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Better drivers? (Score:2, Insightful)