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XGI, VIA Release Open Source Drivers

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the pretty-pictures dept.

An anonymous reader writes "XGI has announced the release of open source drivers for its Volari family of graphics adapters. Efforts at X.Org to merge the new code into the head branch are already underway. Almost simultaneously, VIA has announced the immediate release of open source drivers for S3 Graphics UniChrome, VIA ProSavage and ProSavage DDR. Could these moves signal the beginning of a period of rapid improvement in Free drivers for video cards?"

5 of 315 comments (clear)

  1. What do they have to lose? by LiNKz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It isn't like they have much to lose. They sell hardware, the drivers simply let that hardware operate. They probably also know this will earn them points with the Open Source Community.. which is always a good thing.

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    1. Re:What do they have to lose? by 91degrees · · Score: 5, Insightful

      True, but a lot of hardware companies hoard their IP as though it has intrinsic value. They seem to assume that since it cost something to produce, it must be worth something.

      Hopefully this will result in an improvement in the drivers and a detectable increase in sales for this hardware.

    2. Re:What do they have to lose? by harrkev · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yup. This is a win-win proposition for them. They just scored major brownie points with major geeks (myself included). I can tell you that if I was looking for a new vid card right now, I would seriously look into their stuff. A week ago, I would have looked ONLY at nVidia.

      The impact is that they will likely see a noticable improvement in sales because of this. And as far as their IP, nobody can even come close to nVidia and ATI. You only have to worry about your IP if you are concerned about the people behind you catching up. If you ARE in last place, you have nothing to loose ;)

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  2. Well . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You paying attention to this ATI?

  3. drivers are rarely done 100% in-house by SethJohnson · · Score: 4, Insightful



    This is not completely fair. Most hardware companies depend on code in their drivers that their staff did not write. As contracts generally go, the outside developer usually imposes limits on use and distribution of their work. It's invariably more expensive to purchase outsourced code without restrictions.

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