From owner-freebsd-amd64@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Oct 17 20:00:02 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2064B16A403 for ; Tue, 17 Oct 2006 20:00:02 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mwm-dated-1161979221.ac27d9@mired.org) Received: from mired.org (vpn.mired.org [66.92.153.74]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 7966243D6D for ; Tue, 17 Oct 2006 20:00:01 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from mwm-dated-1161979221.ac27d9@mired.org) Received: (qmail 72501 invoked by uid 1001); 17 Oct 2006 20:00:21 -0000 Received: by bhuda.mired.org (tmda-sendmail, from uid 1001); Tue, 17 Oct 2006 16:00:21 -0400 (EDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <17717.13909.352765.706420@bhuda.mired.org> Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2006 16:00:21 -0400 To: Torfinn Ingolfsen In-Reply-To: <20061017213931.bbcd701a.torfinn.ingolfsen@broadpark.no> References: <45351E55.000003.14882@webmail11.yandex.ru> <17717.10025.959024.108597@bhuda.mired.org> <20061017213931.bbcd701a.torfinn.ingolfsen@broadpark.no> X-Mailer: VM 7.17 under 21.4 (patch 19) "Constant Variable" XEmacs Lucid X-Primary-Address: mwm@mired.org X-face: "5Mnwy%?j>IIV\)A=):rjWL~NB2aH[}Yq8Z=u~vJ`"(,&SiLvbbz2W`; h9L,Yg`+vb1>RG% *h+%X^n0EZd>TM8_IB;a8F?(Fb"lw'IgCoyM.[Lg#r\ X-Delivery-Agent: TMDA/1.0.3 (Seattle Slew) From: Mike Meyer Cc: freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org Subject: Re: video card for amd64 X-BeenThere: freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the AMD64 platform List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2006 20:00:02 -0000 In <20061017213931.bbcd701a.torfinn.ingolfsen@broadpark.no>, Torfinn Ingolfsen typed: > On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 14:55:37 -0400 > Mike Meyer wrote: > > ATI, unlike NVidia, supports open source OS's properly, by releasing > > docs and/or driver source for their cards. > > This is only true for a specific subset of ATI cards. The whole > X1000-series (X1300, X1400 and X1600 at least) does not work *at* *all* > with any open source ati driver, only with the vesa driver. according > to the developers, this is because ATI refuses to release all necessary > information to get these cards working with the open source driver. > And with the vesa driver you might not get all features (example: a > laptop with X1400 and 1280x800 display will only work in 1024x768 with > vesa). And of course, the ATI proprietary driver only works under Linux. > So much for the "ATI is better than nVidia in supporting open source" > argument. "Better" is a judgement call, and doesn't imply "good". I'd say ATI is better than nVidia, because ATI provides information for at least some of their cards, so you can get open source drivers for them that work well. As far as I know, there are no open source drivers for any nVidia card that work well - all of them seem to be at the "use the VESA driver and pray" level you get with some of the ATI cards. It may be that ATI is moving towards stopping support for open source systems. That would be a shame. Whether releasing closed-source drivers for a handful of open-source platforms qualifies as "supporting open source" is another question. Clearly they're supporting the platform, but that's not necessarily the same thing. http://www.mired.org/consulting.html Independent Network/Unix/Perforce consultant, email for more information.