Mark Hobley wrote:
> In comp.os.linux.hardware Chris Cox <ccox_nopenotthis@airmail.net> wrote:
>
>> Ok... but having owned ATI and Nvidia cards throughout the years,
>> ATI always gives me the most headaches...
>
> I only use ATI cards here, and have had no problems with the open source
> drivers.

The open source drivers only support a limited subset of cards and
even then, no accelerated 3d on most (and 3d only very recently
anyhow).

>
>> Nvidia can cause problems,
>
> My experience with Nvidia is that the drivers are built for specific
> kernel releases. Although I must admit, these are on third party
> machines. I would never buy a video card that cannot be driven using my
> own software, so I would never buy an Nvidia card for my own machine.

With Nvidia you build from scratch. I suppose you could trust them
for the very few binary builds they provide, but their installer is
very good at compiling from scratch against your kernel.

Chances are all of the software on your box is not owned by you. :)

I think what you meant to say is, you don't want to run anything
but GPL'd (or at least OSI approved) open source software.

And that was my point with regards to Nvidia today. Nvidia is
closed source, but with a pretty well built kernel installer.
End result is a pretty functional and fast fully accelerated
openGL driver. Same CANNOT be said about ATI today. And
AFAIK, not ever, since I do not believe the goal is to support
the whole gambit of ATI architectures out there... but probably
only something relatively contemporary (but possibly NOT
the very latest and greatest... sigh).

I'm glad that you have chosen (and it's somehwhat of a crap shoot)
compatible ATI cards all of this time. Certainly I run many
radeons here... and some with ATI's proprietary (closed source)
driver (due to lack of support ... that is completely
non-functional support of the open source radeon driver).

With that said, the open source nv driver does seem to support
a lot more Nvidia boards than the the open source radeon
driver supports ATI boards.... so as long as 3d isn't interesting
(your case), you probably have the option of going either way.

It is hoped that eventually an open source ATI driver will have
fully accelerated openGL/3d for at least a good portion of
ATI's radeon series... but only time will tell.

I demand that Chris Cox may or may not have trolled...

> Mark Hobley wrote:
>> In comp.os.linux.hardware Chris Cox <ccox_nopenotthis@airmail.net> wrote:
>>> Ok... but having owned ATI and Nvidia cards throughout the years,
>>> ATI always gives me the most headaches...
>> I only use ATI cards here, and have had no problems with the open source
>> drivers.

> The open source drivers only support a limited subset of cards and even
> then, no accelerated 3d on most (and 3d only very recently anyhow).

That would be "r5xx and r6xx cards, ignoring the older ones", right?

[snip]
--
| Darren Salt | linux or ds at | nr. Ashington, | Toon
| RISC OS, Linux | youmustbejoking,demon,co,uk | Northumberland | Army
| Let's keep the pound sterling

I'm the person that your mother warned you about.

I demand that Chris Cox may or may not have trolled...

> Mark Hobley wrote:
>> In comp.os.linux.hardware Chris Cox <ccox_nopenotthis@airmail.net> wrote:
>>> Ok... but having owned ATI and Nvidia cards throughout the years,
>>> ATI always gives me the most headaches...
>> I only use ATI cards here, and have had no problems with the open source
>> drivers.

> The open source drivers only support a limited subset of cards and even
> then, no accelerated 3d on most (and 3d only very recently anyhow).

That would be "r5xx and r6xx cards, ignoring the older ones", right?

[snip]
--
| Darren Salt | linux or ds at | nr. Ashington, | Toon
| RISC OS, Linux | youmustbejoking,demon,co,uk | Northumberland | Army
| Let's keep the pound sterling

I'm the person that your mother warned you about.