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ATI Committed To Fixing Its OSS Problems

Posted by kdawson on from the about-time dept.

Sits writes "Chris Blizzard blogged from the Red Hat summit that an ATI marketing spokesman said, from the stage, that ATI knows it has a problem with open source and is committed to fixing it. Does this mean ATI will finally resolve alleged agpgart misappropriation, and fast track the release of open source 2D drivers on its latest cards while releasing specifications for its mid-range cards? Or is ATI only concerned with fixes to its binary driver to maintain feature parity with competitors?"

8 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. Likely binary drivers only. by danomac · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd wager a guess they're going to fix the binary drivers only.

    Why would they open a spec when they can compete with the binary drivers?

    1. Re:Likely binary drivers only. by InsaneProcessor · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The video card industry is so secretive with thier software. ATI even locks the BIOS so after POST you cannot access the card to download it. They are so afraid that the competiition will find out how they work or that someone else will build a better driver. This is the only part of the PC buisiness that is this large, yet this secretive. I thing that they are just overly paranoid.

      --

      Athiesm is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby.
    2. Re:Likely binary drivers only. by Shazow · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually, it's more likely that the reason all their software is locked away and kept secret is because it's probably infringing on numerous software patents. When Joe Sixpack can go down to the patent office and register a doubly linked list as his own invention, lots of possibilities for lawsuits open up.

      I did some research into this for a course, but I don't have sources to cite off the top of my head. Definitely something worth looking into.

      - shazow

  2. Does this mean ....... by Timesprout · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why dont you ask ATI what it means. How is Slashdot supposed to be privy to ATI's roadmap?

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  3. People tend to say OSS support ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... when they only mean 'Linux support'. And personally, I don't consider closed source binaries OSS support at all. AMD has been good about making the information available for open-source programmers so their chips can be supported. Perhaps their purchase of ATI will force a shift in the corporate culture there too. Well, we can hope.

  4. Current State by scubanator87 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I am currently running the *newst* ati binary drivers and although they have added the Catalyst Control center (improvement ofer the old fglrx control center) mine (and a few other people i know using the same driver) cant seem to get dual monitor to work. And with the Opensource ati driver atleast AIGLX works but still no dual head display.

              ATI needs to step up the quality of their coding and there is no *good* reason why ati does not support AIGLX and why their 8.35.5 is having problems with dual monitors. Because my laptop uses ati and i was so displeased with its state of drivers forced me to go with nvidia when i built my desktop a year ago. Im sure many people using Linux stay clear of ati when possible for the same reason. When and if they get their stuff together it will receive a warm welcome...if they do it right that is.

    Also why is it people need programs like envy to install their drivers. Hopefully ATI and nvidia will pick up the slack hear and make it easer to install the drivers.

  5. Dell .... by taniwha · · Score: 5, Interesting

    suddenly Dell is shipping boxes with Linux .... a big customer to ATI .... and Dell is talking to Ubuntu .... "How do we know which of our boxes work well for Linux, will cause us the least amount of tech support grief' ... Ubuntu guy says "well these drivers don't work so well .... they're not well supported by their manufacturers" ..... Dell guy starts crossing boxes with ATI cards off the list .... and tells ATI marketting who start worrying that Dell will start to not buy ATI at all .....

  6. Open? Does not play with DRM, so forget it. by Bearhouse · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ever heard of, "Certified Output Protection Protocol (COPP), Protected Video Path Output Protection Management (PVP-OPM),
    Protected Video Path User Accessible Bus (PVP-UAB) and Protected Broadcast Driver Architecture (PBDA..."

    All lovely things that Microsoft and ATI (will/do) use to piss you off, and make connecting all of your expensive new PC & AV kit virtually impossible.

    Better binary drivers? Maybe.

    Genuinely 'open' architecture that would enable the OSS community to bypass (more easily) current and future DRM, while still being able to view the result on the lastest hardware? No way.