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Well, some people are talking about a warped image when using an IMAX screen, due to the width of the screen. Perhaps if the Matrox card was out... with the Surround Gaming feature, it may actually look ok, although I don't know about the resolution... Playing Jedi Knight 2 on a huge screen would certainly be cool, though :)

Of course you didn't say such a thing, and I hope I didn't imply it. I'm just pointing out that there are areas where Matrox driver support could be a LOT better.

Besides, as was the original point, did Matrox ever tell you that it supported tv out under linux? Um, NO. Actually, has Matrox ever claimed 'Official Support For Linux'? Um, NO. Can you send me a Matrox card package that says that the card supports linux? Um, NO.

If I still had the box I could. Actually, you can look it up on the web instead. On this page it clearly says that Linux is one of the supported OSes.

IIRC, the box for G450 says "Linux support" and "TV-out support", so it's not unreasonable to expect TV-out to work under Linux.

(Of course, in the small print on the web site it clearly says that TV-out is not supported under Linux, but as TV-out IS supported in the G400 linux drivers, it's not really a unreasonable thing to expect)

I have been using a matrox G450 dual monitor card for over 2 years at work, never once have I wanted to change it and get another card, never once have I had any problems of any sort. At home however, where I do my gaming, you certainly won't find any matrox cards. (A great big stack of various s3, ati and nvidia cards, but nary a matrox in sight.)

So, I guess you haven't tried to use the video-out feature of the G450 under Linux at work? If you had, you might agree with the frustrated users on the matrox linux forums.

The triple-headed desktop is probably the most understated feature of this card. Talk to anyone that deals with graphics day-to-day - 3d animators, video editors, graphic designers, and the extra screen real-estate is a big boost in productivity.

Here's a few triple screenshots from Matrox's site. and I believe that odd three-panel monitor is from Panoram Tech.

D

I've got a nice Matrox dual-head video card for my workstation at work and quite honestly I don't know how I did anything before having two nice 20 inch monitors taking up all the desk space in my cubicle. :)

Matrox is noted more for it's workstation class video cards than it's 3-D gaming abilities, but after seeing some of the info on "surround gaming," I don't know . . . I sure wouldn't mind playing the lastest game spanning 3 nice LCD monitors.

For more info, you should check out
http://www.matrox.com/mga/3d_gaming/surrgame.cfm or check out these screen shots of Jedi Knight II:
http://www.matrox.com/mga/3d_gaming/enhanced_gam es / knt2.cfm.

I've got a nice Matrox dual-head video card for my workstation at work and quite honestly I don't know how I did anything before having two nice 20 inch monitors taking up all the desk space in my cubicle. :)

Matrox is noted more for it's workstation class video cards than it's 3-D gaming abilities, but after seeing some of the info on "surround gaming," I don't know . . . I sure wouldn't mind playing the lastest game spanning 3 nice LCD monitors.

For more info, you should check out
http://www.matrox.com/mga/3d_gaming/surrgame.cfm or check out these screen shots of Jedi Knight II:
http://www.matrox.com/mga/3d_gaming/enhanced_gam es / knt2.cfm.

Hmmmm? The Geforce 4 line supports dual-head display out of one AGP card. ATI 8500 cards might, I know they have both VGA and DVI outs. Hell, the new Matrox Parhelia cards support THREE monitors (check out the surround gaming screenshots). I imagine making a new northbridge chip with another set of memory bandwidth to a 4~8x agp slot wouldnt be as easy as going down to Best Buy and getting one of these cards.

ATI is to be commended for their relative openness compared to NVidia and Matrox.

While I agree that ATi's willingness to release specs is heartening, I don't think you give Matrox enough credit. They have a pretty good history of cooperating with open source developers. I think they keep some portions of their linux drivers closed (DualHead maybe?), but by and large they have been quite supportive of OSS.

I'm hoping games like Doom III will encourage an emphasis on visual quality in addition to pure speed. Sharp output, rendering precision and good colors are routinely sacrificed, especially with ATI and NVidia cards. I don't want my zombies to have seams, and I'd also like crisp text at high resolutions in 2D apps. Along these lines, I'm hopeful that the new Matrox card will live up to the hype.

10bit (gray scale) medical GFX cards , Care of Matrox

http://www.matrox.com/mga/start/newsletter/may_200 2/parhelia512.cfm

Monitors: Analog monitors (eg. the one you have today) can display an infinite number of colors. The DAC (digital-to-analog converter) on the graphics card creates the appropriate analog signal. The real question is whether digital DVI monitors will support more than 24 bits of color.

Where: Matrox has a list, including their own online store. CDW seems to carry most Matrox products.

When: June.

Price: $450 for the top-end, low-end was not specified anywhere I could see.

Their edge-AA functionality would lend itself well to font rendering. It's debatable whether it'll help the speed or even quality of current Windows font rendering, but so long as you're not forced to use it, it can't hurt. The hardware gamma correction is good, and it does "de-gamma" the background before blending in the text (which should be done with linear data).

My question is, does it correctly support hinting? It's not much use unless it does.

Everything on HOCP is available from Matrox directly here.

The AVi links have been removed from the site because of the /. effect. Go get them from the original site ...

Environment-mapped bump-mapping, which Matrox first brought to consumer hardware with the G400, was actually invented by none other than BitBoys Oy.

Environment-mapped bump-mapping, which Matrox first brought to consumer hardware with the G400, was actually invented by none other than BitBoys Oy.

For the past year I've been using a Matrox G200 MMS Quad card. (yeah, it's PCI and only 8mb * 4, but all I do is code.) At the moment I've got four matched IBM digital flat panels hooked up. (note, this doesn't inspire too many kind words from my coworkers!) I like it, however, #1 doesn't get much use. In Win2k, I have the taskbar in #3, and so my vision is centered, with #2 and #4 peripheral. I'm actually seriously considering removing the #1 panel!

What I'd really like to see from Matrox, and the industry, is some improving on the 1280*1024 @ 85hz limit for DVI spec. AFAIK you can't get digital output from a card to a flat panel monitor at higher than this resolution. (IBM's top end flat panel uses all four channels of a modified G200 to get digital to it's 2560*2048 model.)

If Matrox's new card will support a high res digital panels on an agp interface, I'll be first in line to pick one up.

All of my video card money goes to Matrox. End of story. I won't waste my time with these half-assed, hostile companies like ATI and Nvidia. (Yeah, so I'm a little behind the curve on this whole "3D game" thing...;) I'm extremely happy that Matrox will produce a good 3D card! I have owned the Millenium II, Marvel G200, and G450 dualhead and been extremely happy with them all. Now I'm just waiting for the Marvel G1000!

--Bob

All of my video card money goes to Matrox. End of story. I won't waste my time with these half-assed, hostile companies like ATI and Nvidia. (Yeah, so I'm a little behind the curve on this whole "3D game" thing...;) I'm extremely happy that Matrox will produce a good 3D card! I have owned the Millenium II, Marvel G200, and G450 dualhead and been extremely happy with them all. Now I'm just waiting for the Marvel G1000!

--Bob

Spoken like a person who has no idea how computers are used in the real world. Yes, there are programs that use 3D, including modelling and games. They continue to form a very small part of the market.

In evidence I present the Matrox G200 MMS; a four-head video card based on the marginally 3D-capable G200 chip. Matrox sells these by the bucketload into businesses like finance, who give some value to a card that can present four screens of 2D information. I also present the 10 Top Selling Games of 2001. There's exactly zero games in there that can't be played on a G400, and one that would like a more powerful card (Black and White).

Yes, Matrox realizes that they cannot compete in the high-end 3D gaming market with the G550. What you need to realize is that most of the computer users in the world don't need any3D, let alone more than what a G400 can deliver.

Matrox have confirmed that there is something in the pipeline to be released in 3 days time. But all they are officially giving us is a flash screen here that shows that something is going on.

Also, many IBM machines run Linux - I wish all their laptops did!

get a matrox card it is SOOOOO worth it...

get a dual moniter one too... i know you wanted a new moniter but a new vid card is good too... anyway matrox cards are by far the clearest sharpest cards out there...

it will reduce eye strain AND their dual moniter cards have the option for low visibility functions such as a magnifier for the second moniter and the first one is the actual screen... anyway i would advice dual lcd's on a matrox G550 dual dvi

get a matrox card it is SOOOOO worth it...

get a dual moniter one too... i know you wanted a new moniter but a new vid card is good too... anyway matrox cards are by far the clearest sharpest cards out there...

it will reduce eye strain AND their dual moniter cards have the option for low visibility functions such as a magnifier for the second moniter and the first one is the actual screen... anyway i would advice dual lcd's on a matrox G550 dual dvi

My grandmother (who has Cataracts amongst other eye problems) is able to view things on her 21" monitor just fine.

So go for a 21 incher, pretty much any one will do as long as it has a good .pitch and the focus is good. Go Trinitron for that matter.

Baring that, I am sure that these people may be able to help you. :)

A good on screen text dictator is a plus, I have known of people who were almost compleatly blind and managed to use a computer just fine with a good text dictator. I find the damn things highly annoying myself (being a speed reader I would keel over if I lost my ability to read efficently. :( :( :( ) but many people swear by them.

*COUGH* *COUGH* Windows (any version) tends to have excellent text dictation support, as it does other features for the visualy impaired. (built in magnifing utility and such).

Also, learn how to type with your eyes clsoed, it can save a lot of wear and tear on them. :) (useful advice in general. :) )

Use a good video card, I recommend a Matrrox card of any sort. They Rock. Period. :)

however, as mentioned, there are cards available to do what you want

I have two 19" flat CRT Trinitrons at home connected to a Matrox G450. I highly suggest this card (or the G550) because it comes with good software for possitioning popup windows correctly instead of splitting it in the middle of two displays. It's nice not wasting an addition PCI slot as well, and both monitors have equal hardware pushing video to them. It also makes the display appear as one monitor to Windows, where as having two video cards actually show up as multiple devices to Windows. This allows the Tasktray to span across both monitors, and my active desktop as well. With multiple video cards, you have a master desktop that is just like a single desktop, then all the rest are just additional space to move windows to. I guess it depends on your personal taste, but I like having the displays appear as one to Windows.

My only word of caution: Having an odd number of displays is highly recommended as you won't have the border of two displays in the center of your vision. It's very distracting.

Dell 19" Trinitron

Matrox G450 (because it has dual VGA instead of dual DVI like the G550)

Image of my 3200 x 1200 desktop (with GTPlanet active desktop (that I made))

~LoudMusic

I Wish I had written it. Enjoy!

As an enlightened, modern parent, I try to be as involved as possible in the lives of my six children. I encourage them to join team sports. I attend their teen parties with them to ensure no drinking or alcohol is on the premises. I keep a fatherly eye on the CDs they listen to and the shows they watch, the company they keep and the books they read. You could say I'm a model parent. My children have never failed to make me proud, and I can say without the slightest embellishment that I have the finest family in the USA.

Two years ago, my wife Carol and I decided that our children's education would not be complete without some grounding in modern computers. To this end, we bought our children a brand new Compaq to learn with. The kids had a lot of fun using the handful of application programs we'd bought, such as Adobe's Photoshop and Microsoft's Word, and my wife and I were pleased that our gift was received so well. Our son Peter was most entranced by the device, and became quite a pro at surfing the net. When Peter began to spend whole days on the machine, I became concerned, but Carol advised me to calm down, and that it was only a passing phase. I was content to bow to her experience as a mother, until our youngest daughter, Cindy, charged into the living room one night to blurt out: "Peter is a computer hacker!"

As you can imagine, I was amazed. A computer hacker in my own house! I began to monitor my son's habits, to make certain that Cindy wasn't just telling stories, as she is prone to doing at times.

After a few days of investigation, and some research into computer hacking, I confronted Peter with the evidence. I'm afraid to say, this was the only time I have ever been truly disappointed in one of my children. We raised them to be honest and to have integrity, and Peter betrayed the principles we tried to encourage in him, when he refused point blank to admit to his activities. His denials continued for hours, and in the end, I was left with no choice but to ban him from using the computer until he is old enough to be responsible for his actions.

After going through this ordeal with my own family, I was left pondering how I could best help others in similar situations. I'd gained a lot of knowledge over those few days regarding hackers. It's only right that I provide that information to other parents, in the hope that they will be able to tell if their children are being drawn into the world of hacking. Perhaps other parents will be able to steer their sons back onto the straight and narrow before extreme measures need to be employed.

To this end, I have decided to publish the top ten signs that your son is a hacker. I advise any parents to read this list carefully and if their son matches the profile, they should take action. A smart parent will first try to reason with their son, before resorting to groundings, or even spanking. I pride myself that I have never had to spank a child, and I hope this guide will help other parents to put a halt to their son's misbehaviour before a spanking becomes necessary.

1. Has your son asked you to change ISPs?

Most American families use trusted and responsible Internet Service Providers, such as AOL. These providers have a strict "No Hacking" policy, and take careful measures to ensure that your internet experience is enjoyable, educational and above all legal. If your child is becoming a hacker, one of his first steps will be to request a change to a more hacker friendly provider.

I would advise all parents to refuse this request. One of the reasons your son is interested in switching providers is to get away from AOL's child safety filter. This filter is vital to any parent who wants his son to enjoy the internet without the endangering him through exposure to "adult" content. It is best to stick with the protection AOL provides, rather than using a home-based solution. If your son is becoming a hacker, he will be able to circumvent any home-based measures with surprising ease, using information gleaned from various hacker sites.

2. Are you finding programs on your computer that you don't remember installing?

Your son will probably try to install some hacker software. He may attempt to conceal the presence of the software in some way, but you can usually find any new programs by reading through the programs listed under "Install/Remove Programs" in your control panel. Popular hacker software includes "Comet Cursor", "Bonzi Buddy" and "Flash".

The best option is to confront your son with the evidence, and force him to remove the offending programs. He will probably try to install the software again, but you will be able to tell that this is happening, if your machine offers to "download" one of the hacker applications. If this happens, it is time to give your son a stern talking to, and possibly consider punishing him with a grounding.

3. Has your child asked for new hardware?

Computer hackers are often limited by conventional computer hardware. They may request "faster" video cards, and larger hard drives, or even more memory. If your son starts requesting these devices, it is possible that he has a legitimate need. You can best ensure that you are buying legal, trustworthy hardware by only buying replacement parts from your computer's manufacturer.

If your son has requested a new "processor" from a company called "AMD", this is genuine cause for alarm. AMD is a third-world based company who make inferior, "knock-off" copies of American processor chips. They use child labor extensively in their third world sweatshops, and they deliberately disable the security features that American processor makers, such as Intel, use to prevent hacking. AMD chips are never sold in stores, and you will most likely be told that you have to order them from internet sites. Do not buy this chip! This is one request that you must refuse your son, if you are to have any hope of raising him well.

4. Does your child read hacking manuals?

If you pay close attention to your son's reading habits, as I do, you will be able to determine a great deal about his opinions and hobbies. Children are at their most impressionable in the teenage years. Any father who has had a seventeen year old daughter attempt to sneak out on a date wearing make up and perfume is well aware of the effect that improper influences can have on inexperienced minds.

There are, unfortunately, many hacking manuals available in bookshops today. A few titles to be on the lookout for are: "Snow Crash" and "Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson; "Neuromancer" by William Gibson; "Programming with Perl" by Timothy O'Reilly; "Geeks" by Jon Katz; "The Hacker Crackdown" by Bruce Sterling; "Microserfs" by Douglas Coupland; "Hackers" by Steven Levy; and "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" by Eric S. Raymond.

If you find any of these hacking manuals in your child's possession, confiscate them immediately. You should also petition local booksellers to remove these titles from their shelves. You may meet with some resistance at first, but even booksellers have to bow to community pressure.

5. How much time does your child spend using the computer each day?

If your son spends more than thirty minutes each day on the computer, he may be using it to DOS other peoples sites. DOSing involves gaining access to the "command prompt" on other people's machines, and using it to tie up vital internet services. This can take up to eight hours. If your son is doing this, he is breaking the law, and you should stop him immediately. The safest policy is to limit your children's access to the computer to a maximum of forty-five minutes each day.

6. Does your son use Quake?

Quake is an online virtual reality used by hackers. It is a popular meeting place and training ground, where they discuss hacking and train in the use of various firearms. Many hackers develop anti-social tendencies due to the use of this virtual world, and it may cause erratic behaviour at home and at school.

If your son is using Quake, you should make hime understand that this is not acceptable to you. You should ensure all the firearms in your house are carefully locked away, and have trigger locks installed. You should also bring your concerns to the attention of his school.

7. Is your son becoming argumentative and surly in his social behaviour?

As a child enters the electronic world of hacking, he may become disaffected with the real world. He may lose the ability to control his actions, or judge the rightness or wrongness of a course of behaviour. This will manifest itself soonest in the way he treats others. Those whom he disagrees with will be met with scorn, bitterness, and even foul language. He may utter threats of violence of a real or electronic nature.

Even when confronted, your son will probably find it difficult to talk about this problem to you. He will probably claim that there is no problem, and that you are imagining things. He may tell you that it is you who has the problem, and you should "back off" and "stop smothering him." Do not allow yourself to be deceived. You are the only chance your son has, even if he doesn't understand the situation he is in. Keep trying to get through to him, no matter how much he retreats into himself.

8. Is your son obsessed with "Lunix"?

BSD, Lunix, Debian and Mandrake are all versions of an illegal hacker operation system, invented by a Soviet computer hacker named Linyos Torovoltos, before the Russians lost the Cold War. It is based on a program called "xenix", which was written by Microsoft for the US government. These programs are used by hackers to break into other people's computer systems to steal credit card numbers. They may also be used to break into people's stereos to steal their music, using the "mp3" program. Torovoltos is a notorious hacker, responsible for writing many hacker programs, such as "telnet", which is used by hackers to connect to machines on the internet without using a telephone.

Your son may try to install "lunix" on your hard drive. If he is careful, you may not notice its presence, however, lunix is a capricious beast, and if handled incorrectly, your son may damage your computer, and even break it completely by deleting Windows, at which point you will have to have your computer repaired by a professional.

If you see the word "LILO" during your windows startup (just after you turn the machine on), your son has installed lunix. In order to get rid of it, you will have to send your computer back to the manufacturer, and have them fit a new hard drive. Lunix is extremely dangerous software, and cannot be removed without destroying part of your hard disk surface.

9. Has your son radically changed his appearance?

If your son has undergone a sudden change in his style of dress, you may have a hacker on your hands. Hackers tend to dress in bright, day-glo colors. They may wear baggy pants, bright colored shirts and spiky hair dyed in bright colors to match their clothes. They may take to carrying "glow-sticks" and some wear pacifiers around their necks. (I have no idea why they do this) There are many such hackers in schools today, and your son may have started to associate with them. If you notice that your son's group of friends includes people dressed like this, it is time to think about a severe curfew, to protect him from dangerous influences.

10. Is your son struggling academically?

If your son is failing courses in school, or performing poorly on sports teams, he may be involved in a hacking group, such as the infamous "Otaku" hacker association. Excessive time spent on the computer, communicating with his fellow hackers may cause temporary damage to the eyes and brain, from the electromagnetic radiation. This will cause his marks to slip dramatically, particularly in difficult subjects such as Math, and Chemistry. In extreme cases, over-exposure to computer radiation can cause schizophrenia, meningitis and other psychological diseases. Also, the reduction in exercise may cause him to lose muscle mass, and even to start gaining weight. For the sake of your child's mental and physical health, you must put a stop to his hacking, and limit his computer time drastically.

I encourage all parents to read through this guide carefully. Your child's future may depend upon it. Hacking is an illegal and dangerous activity, that may land your child in prison, and tear your family apart. It cannot be taken too seriously.

Thats when you go out and buy a dual head video card. When I bought mine, I did so for bragging rights (Which I am hereby implementing:)) but after I started using it, I am totally addicted, I can have a developer studio open on one monitor and another open on the other, or all my little apps on one (MP3 Play, Instant Messengers. Any combination of applications. Drool...

Nice product. All you need to do is add a two port 10/100 NIC in the PCI slot, like this one (for a mere $275) and you can even have it manage a DMZ.

Why Apple for it's FireWire and not IEEE for it's same 1394-1995 spec or Sony for it's i.Link (again the same)? Because Apple is the one that did the development and the popularizing of the technology thus their holding the majority of the patents & controlling the licensing.)

Man. Sure is awful there's only one video card maker around...

--

As for DualHead, you can read more about it here:

http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/mill_g450/featu res_dh.cfm

--

Matrox has also been very busy with the Matrox RTMac product for the Macintosh. It's seriously neat, allowing for great video editing since it lets you work with three layers of video and graphics in real time and create broadcast-quality effects instantly without waiting for any rendering... Transitions, fades, wipes, composites, titling... Seriously sweet.

Mostly, yes. Official Matrox drivers at that, and with complete source:

http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/drivers/latest/h ome.cfm

Somewhat of a change from the olden days when they refused to give out programming information at all. Like Diamond before them, they eventually relented. I wonder how much longer NVIDIA can hold out?

Ever notice Windows NT doesn't support LCD monitors ??

Where did you hear that? Perhaps you're confusing LCD (SVGA) with Flat Panel (DVI) displays. Not that it would matter if you did, since Matrox is supporting DVI on NT4 with their G200MMS.
I don't see any problem with using ordinary LCDs with NT. As far as the graphic card knows, it's just another monitor, and beyond that, the operating system doesn't care.
I can assure you that NT doesn't have any problems with LCDs, as I've used it my self for several years.

---

Get a server motherboard/system. Try SuperMicro - I have an old dual-PPro motherboard of theirs, which has 8 PCI slots plus 2 ISA slots. This is accomplished by using an i960 I/O processor, which has an integrated PCI bridge. Of course, this has to be in a server case, because the motherboard is about 6 inches wider than standard AT size. (call me - I'll make you a deal on it :) Their new motherboards also have a bunch of slots (most are 6 PCI+1AGP, but no ISA).

Get a motherboard like the Acer AK73-1394(A). It has 5 PCI slots, 1 AGP slot, and integrated FireWire. Get a Matrox Marvel G450 eTV or the ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon, both of which have a TV tuner on the card. Use a USB to multiport serial adapter for the serial ports. Get a PCI DIO card from ComputerBoards or equivalent.

Basically, the two choices boil down to either spending large amounts of money on a server motherboard and case, or getting boards with combined functions that may not be the perfect thing, but are (hopefully) less expensive.

Have fun.

I'm no regular reader of Chick's Hardware, so I don't have any "gut feel" about their reliability...

I was confused by the layout of the article. It starts out with saying that it's based on rumors, but follows that up with what looks like a real feature-set specification (complete with corporate-style disclaimers). What gives? Is the G550 an announced product? I zoomed over to Matrox' site of course, but couldn't find it. Not even on their press release page... Weird. Can anyone clear that up for me?

I'm no regular reader of Chick's Hardware, so I don't have any "gut feel" about their reliability...

I was confused by the layout of the article. It starts out with saying that it's based on rumors, but follows that up with what looks like a real feature-set specification (complete with corporate-style disclaimers). What gives? Is the G550 an announced product? I zoomed over to Matrox' site of course, but couldn't find it. Not even on their press release page... Weird. Can anyone clear that up for me?

I asked about this on Matrox's and MURC's forums if Tribes 2 (T2) would run nicely even at the lowest details, etc. The answer is no, even on my Pentium III 600 Mhz with 256 MB and Windows 98.

I have friends who had Voodoo3 cards, and the game was too choppy for them. They all got GeForce 2 cards, and no problems.

So you will need to upgrade the video card (bottle neck) in order to play T2. I will eventually upgrade my video card soon.

It works. I've been running it for about a month and a half. Works pretty well too. I can do rediculous resolutions and 32bit and all that but I just run 1280x1024 at 24. My machine did lock up *once* but it was when I was just starting to set up the new box and crazily tweeking all sorts of stuff.

It's a pain to install though. That is XF4.0.2 I mean. I suspect XF4.0.3 is no different. Actually this release looks like some relativly minor updates. To install you have to pull down like 25MB in 12 files and run there installer. Good luck getting your old X back though. Cross your fingers and toes for that one(actually it wouldn't be that hard to re-install an older version and might be just a matter of moving some dirs back in place). After that, get the latest drivers from matrox and generate or get a config and help from others on the matrox linux form.

I didn't try 3d accel and DRI and GLX or other acronyms but I've read about people doing all that stuff and dual head, etc. If you like hacking though you'll have a blast!

It works. I've been running it for about a month and a half. Works pretty well too. I can do rediculous resolutions and 32bit and all that but I just run 1280x1024 at 24. My machine did lock up *once* but it was when I was just starting to set up the new box and crazily tweeking all sorts of stuff.

It's a pain to install though. That is XF4.0.2 I mean. I suspect XF4.0.3 is no different. Actually this release looks like some relativly minor updates. To install you have to pull down like 25MB in 12 files and run there installer. Good luck getting your old X back though. Cross your fingers and toes for that one(actually it wouldn't be that hard to re-install an older version and might be just a matter of moving some dirs back in place). After that, get the latest drivers from matrox and generate or get a config and help from others on the matrox linux form.

I didn't try 3d accel and DRI and GLX or other acronyms but I've read about people doing all that stuff and dual head, etc. If you like hacking though you'll have a blast!

We need to put the power of moderation in everyone's hands, so that my search directs me to Matrox's beta linux driver (kewl!) and yours brings you to what you want. This is the idea behind truly personalized media. But the problem with personalized media is that, up til now, you've had to surrender your valuable profile information to get it. The looming danger of Big Brother is why I called my 1981 thesis on a personalized newspaper NewsPeek (a peek at the news, and a play on the George Orwell-1984 term newspeak).

We need better filters, but Google as it stands won't cut it. A "my-Google" that blends my particular viewpoint with others of like mind is more like it, but privacy becomes a major concern here. (What happens when "my-Google" gets bought by Microsoft or Oracle, or what if its records are subpoenaed by the FBI?) Separation of your true name from your persona (what you do) becomes essential. As Bruce Sterling wrote way back in 1992, we need tools to direct our attention to what we want to see amongst all there is to see. And as we build these tools, we will need to be mindful of our privacy.

--

Please check before you post?
This is NOT a G400/G450 problem, it's a limitation in Windows 2000! Any other OS can take advantage of the DualHead feature, read more about it here

Keep your old monitor

Buy a dual-head Matrox g450 (or multiple PCI Matrox video cards)

Buy a high quality 19" flat screen CRT

Configure X to use Xinerama. You get more real estate with two 19" monitors than one 21" for the exact same price. In my case, I saved $450 by keeping my older, high-quaity 17" monitor. I keep it to the side of my main monitor for viewing documentation and other miscellaneous tasks. I use my new 19" for the actual coding, since that is what I am looking/staring at most of the time.

Resist the urge to coax the greatest resolution out of your monitor. With the two monitors, 1280x1024 becomes 1280x2048! In my case, that means I have 16 bit color, and 75Hz refresh on my less used monitor and 85Hz refresh on my main monitor.

Finally, be sure to read the XFree86 Font Duglification Mini HOWTO. Run TrueType fonts at 100DPI.

By the way, no normal people can afford LCD screens.

The Matrox G400 (for OpenGL) and the G200 (for 2D) really are great cards for several reasons:

• DRI. You can speed up your OpenGL performance in XFree86 4 with direct rendering, almost to the point of Windows' OpenGL performance. Matrox cards are consistently supported first when a new project springs up for X (Mesa, Utah-GLX, DRI).
• Support. Matrox has a full-time technical support person working in the Linux Forum to help users with Matrox cards and getting them to do things like dual-head and OpenGL.
• Drivers. Matrox actually helps by making Linux drivers for their own cards. Better yet, they even give the source code out.

There are other reasons as well, but these are my favorite

The Matrox G400 (for OpenGL) and the G200 (for 2D) really are great cards for several reasons:

• DRI. You can speed up your OpenGL performance in XFree86 4 with direct rendering, almost to the point of Windows' OpenGL performance. Matrox cards are consistently supported first when a new project springs up for X (Mesa, Utah-GLX, DRI).
• Support. Matrox has a full-time technical support person working in the Linux Forum to help users with Matrox cards and getting them to do things like dual-head and OpenGL.
• Drivers. Matrox actually helps by making Linux drivers for their own cards. Better yet, they even give the source code out.

There are other reasons as well, but these are my favorite

The Matrox G400 (for OpenGL) and the G200 (for 2D) really are great cards for several reasons:

• DRI. You can speed up your OpenGL performance in XFree86 4 with direct rendering, almost to the point of Windows' OpenGL performance. Matrox cards are consistently supported first when a new project springs up for X (Mesa, Utah-GLX, DRI).
• Support. Matrox has a full-time technical support person working in the Linux Forum to help users with Matrox cards and getting them to do things like dual-head and OpenGL.
• Drivers. Matrox actually helps by making Linux drivers for their own cards. Better yet, they even give the source code out.

There are other reasons as well, but these are my favorite