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AMD Promises Open Source Graphics Drivers

Posted by Zonk on from the feel-the-love-linux-gamers dept.

MoxFulder writes "Henri Richard, AMD's VP of sales, has promised to deliver open-source drivers for ATI graphics cards (recently acquired by AMD) at the recent Red Hat Summit. A series of good news for proponents of open-source device drivers. In the last year, Intel, the leading provider of integrated graphics cards, has opened their drivers as well. But ATI and NVidia, the only two players in the market for high-performance discrete graphics cards, have so far released only closed-source drivers for their cards. This has created numerous compatibility, stability, and ethical problems for users of Linux and other open source OSes, and prompted projects like Nouveau to try and reverse-engineer NVidia drivers. Hopefully AMD's decision will put pressure on NVidia to release open-source drivers as well!"

7 of 264 comments (clear)

  1. Re:This is great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    but I expect that Linux desktop graphics will closely compete with the Windows desktop soon.

    What are you saying? That the graphics on Linux are going to get slower and more ugly?
  2. Damn you AMD! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    It used to be so easy, I didn't even have to consider ATI's video cards. Now I have to start to keep up with two lines of confusing model names.

  3. Dual head by markov_chain · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now there's something to do if you had a million dollars.

    --
    Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
  4. Re:Nice by timelorde · · Score: 5, Funny

    What about that optical mouse you're using?

    [looks down...]

    Logitech.

    [looks over at the 'ol Windows98 box...]

    Logitech.

    [goes downstairs, looks at wife's laptop...]

    Logitech.

    'Nuff said.

  5. Re:Nice by iminplaya · · Score: 2, Funny

    How popular was the iPod in 2002?

    I had something similar in 1963. It was a media player that fit in my shirt pocket. Though it had no storage to speak of(none), it played streaming media quite well. And because it was not stereo, I only had to wear one earphone, leaving the other ear open to hear the horn of the car that was about to run me down. We all thought it was pretty nifty.

    --
    What?
  6. Re:Nice by Jesus_666 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I have a Mighty Mouse, so no microsoft there either, but at one point I had a Microsoft AP/router that almost didn't suck. Okay, I bricked it when I tried to reflash the firmware with something better (which required me to build my own serialJTAG cable) and it only worked well when you used Microsoft's weird config tool (which didn't work that well either)... But in theory it was worth its money. When I bought it on eBay. Used.

    --
    USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
  7. Re:Nice by triso · · Score: 2, Funny

    English motherfucker, do you speak it? Your post was almost impossible to read. Seriously. Hey! You sound like you need a foot massage.