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nVidia Unified Drivers Including Linux/FreeBSD

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the well-isn't-that-special dept.

Screaming Lunatic writes "nVidia has decided to include Linux and FreeBSD in their Unified Driver Architecture and offer more tech support. Sounds like great news for Linux developers and users if Linux drivers are released at the same time as Windows drivers. (The NV30 emulation driver for Linux was made available about 3 months later than for Windows) The big push is probably from big studios that use Linux tools such as Film Gimp. More info here ." Added by Heunique: You might want to look here if you are using the latest development kernel.

5 of 303 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The have supported Linux for a long time by SquierStrat · · Score: 5, Informative

    The FreeBSD drivers have been out for about a month. The news is that the drivers are part of the official driver package now and will be released with the regularity of the Windows drivers.

    --
    Derek Greene
  2. Yet another reason ... by JSkills · · Score: 5, Informative
    ... to buy nVidia based graphics cards.

    They're arguably equal or (in most cases) superior to most other cards

    They've always supported Linux

    Installing a Geforce 4200i in my Mandrake box was a snap last year ...

    BTW - it was interesting to see the comment by Tim Sweeney of Epic Games (Unreal), who was applauding nVidia for their support of Linux. If we could only get all the gaming companies to pay as much attention to the Linux platform as the consoles or the PC, I could see the entire desktop shifting towards Linux next. Ok, well maybe I'm just dreaming ...

    1. Re:Yet another reason ... by the+gnat · · Score: 5, Informative
      Add to this:
      • Their GLX implementation offers features that are non-existent in Mesa.

      One piece of software I use almost daily essentially requires the NVidia driver if you use it on Linux, because of display lists. The difference in speed is simply ridiculous.
  3. Re:in a word... by DCowern · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's actually not their fault. IIRC, their driver code contains a lot of code from other companies that is copyrighted or under very restrictive licensing. This, unfortunately is very bad for people who would like to see the driver code fully released. It'll never happen without all the contributing corporations signing off on it. I support them because they do the best they can do to support the linux community. They also just happen to do it far better than any other GPU manufacturer ever has.

  4. Re:Still doesn't make a lick of difference to me.. by Repugnant_Shit · · Score: 5, Informative

    Visit www.minion.de for some patches that will let you use the drivers under 2.5.x (worked great for me under 2.5.50). The author of the patches worked at nVidia as an intern doing work on the Linux/FreeBSD drivers.

    --
    Vote for global prefs bug