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Dell Asking ATI For Better Linux Drivers

Posted by kdawson on from the please-sir-can-i-have-a-little-more dept.

Open Source IT writes "According to a presentation at Ubuntu Live 2007, Dell is working on getting better ATI drivers for Linux for use in its Linux offerings. While it is not known whether the end product will end up as open source, with big businesses like Google and Dell now behind the push for better Linux graphics drivers, hopefully ATI will make the smart business decision and give customers what they want."

9 of 291 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Nothing for you to see here... by shaitand · · Score: 5, Funny

    'Has there ever been anything to see in ATI's Linux drivers?'

    Or more to the point, has there ever been anything you could see WITH ATI's Linux drivers?

  2. ATI Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I must be the only person on Earth who hasn't had much problems with ATI's Linux drivers. Them dropping support for anything older than the 9600 series sucks, but I have been Thrilled with with the Linux performance of my Mobility Radeon x1600. Easily bests my Geforce 6800.

    Beryl, XGL, Compiz, UT2003, Enemy Terrority, America's Army, all glass smooth and stable. I can run Beryl while playing high-def (1280p) x264 videos at the same time, too.

    Still, better is better, and ATI's drivers do have some problems entering/leaving the console.

  3. This may help a lot by Bullfish · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you consider that AMD owns ATI and that AMD needs (considering how they have been hemorrhaging money) Dell to buy their CPUs, Dell just may be able to get what the Linux community has been asking wanted for quite a while.

    While Dell doesn't have a lot of fans on Slashdot, they may also be able to get a lot more hardware supported as well.

    Strange bedfellows, but...

    1. Re:This may help a lot by nine-times · · Score: 5, Insightful

      My immediate thought when I read the headline was, "And this is the answer to all those people who asked, 'Why should I care if Dell sells computers with Ubuntu?"

      I remember when that story broke, and loads of people were saying, "I use Linux, but I'm not going to buy a Dell," or "Well I don't use Ubuntu, I use [insert distro here], so this doesn't help me!"

  4. Re:Better drivers? by mabhatter654 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Dell has something the community doesn't have... sales orders for chips!! If Dell wants drivers they stand a good chance in getting them. They just started building AMD systems and bundling ATI chipsets is a key part of the sales pitch. Hopefully several hundred thousand computers will be enough to get the ball rolling!!!

  5. I guess I'm a pragmatist. by i_love_unix · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If the drivers do what I want them to do (i.e. not suck), I will use them, GPL or no GPL.

  6. Endless hand wringing by tji · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why does the never ending cycle of

        ATI Needs to produce better Linux drivers --> ATI announces they really like Linux --> ATI never produces drivers

    keep exciting everyone enough to cause this constant hand wringing?

    They are not going to ever really support Linux well. If that's not clear after 12 years of the above cycle, then you haven't been paying attention. Move on.. Get a board with an Intel integrated GPU if you want totally open. Get an Nvidia card if you don't care about open, but want working accelerated drivers.

    If ATI does somehow produce open specs or drivers, great.. think about buying one then. In the mean time, vote with your dollars, buy something else.

  7. Re:Holy gramatical error batman! by 8-bitDesigner · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bah, he's probably just on an iPhone!

  8. Re:It's hard to write drivers for a crap OS. by Anarke_Incarnate · · Score: 5, Funny

    So that explains VISTA problems, but we're talking Gnu/Linux here....