From owner-freebsd-advocacy Mon Nov 22 11:49:43 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Received: from zippy.cdrom.com (zippy.cdrom.com [204.216.27.228]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8885D14F1D; Mon, 22 Nov 1999 11:49:36 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from jkh@zippy.cdrom.com) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by zippy.cdrom.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id LAA02173; Mon, 22 Nov 1999 11:49:45 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from jkh@zippy.cdrom.com) To: Brett Glass Cc: chat@freebsd.org, jkh@cdrom.com, advocacy@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Xi Graphics drops all FreeBSD products In-reply-to: Your message of "Mon, 22 Nov 1999 11:39:30 MST." <4.2.0.58.19991122113320.04602ec0@localhost> Date: Mon, 22 Nov 1999 11:49:45 -0800 Message-ID: <2169.943300185@localhost> From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" Sender: owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > According to a message I received from Sales Administrator Cindy > Miley of Xi Graphics this morning, Xi Graphics "no longer support[s] > FreeBSD in our retail products." I'm not as concerned by this as I would once have been since XiG's work is also of increasingly little relevance to the community. The XFree86 project has made great strides in supporting the types of graphics cards which were formerly entirely within XiG's purview and the support of Precision Insight and MetroLink has also given them far more development capacity than they used to have. Frankly, I see Xi Graphics as something of a dinosaur. They used to have a purpose, but their increasingly hostile attitude towards the XFree86 project (with whom they might have actually cooperated instead) is entirely out of character with the open source movement and if you want a commercial X server with (enthusiastic) FreeBSD support, I suggest you check out the MetroLink product. It may not be entirely the equal of the XiG product right now, but they're working hard on that and, unlike XiG, recognise the importance of working with the open source community rather than treating it like a second-class citizen, to be despised and feared (and anyone who doesn't think that's an accurate characterization has never talked to XiG about their views of the XFree86 project). You may choose to continue to support a company which is actively hostile to their open source brethren, but I find it increasingly difficult to do so and have already stopped using their products in favor of XFree86 on both my TNT and Voodoo3 cards (XiG, in fact, doesn't even support the Riva TNT). This is not a set-back, this is a long-overdue adjustment. - Jordan To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message