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VIA Announces Open Source Driver Initiative

Posted by kdawson on from the itching-for-source dept.

Aron Schatz writes "VIA has announced that they will start a new site (http://linux.via.com.tw — doesn't exist yet) specifically for the development of open source drivers. From their press release: 'Over the following months, VIA will work with the community to enable 2D, 3D and video playback acceleration to ensure the best possible Open Source experience on VIA Processor Platforms. 'To further improve cooperation with the community, VIA will also adhere to a regular quarterly release schedule that is aligned with kernel changes and release of major Linux distributions. In addition, beta releases will be issued on the site as needed, and a bug report and tracking feature will also be integrated.' Nvidia should be next."

6 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. kudos by immerohnegott · · Score: 4, Insightful

    While not exactly a major powerhouse by my estimate, VIA still holds a pretty decent hunk of marketshare. Nice to see one more (relatively) large player see Linux as a valid enough market to make this kind of effort.

  2. I'll believe it when I see it working.... by questro · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'll believe it when I see the drivers working on my Ubuntu system with desktop effects active. I've tried the OpenChrome drivers and other things and nothing works with the UniChrome Pro CN400/PM880 video card that I have. Via has been very disappointing so far.

    1. Re:I'll believe it when I see it working.... by TeknoHog · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I was also thinking this is too little, too late. After a few years of playing around with VIA systems, I've moved to Intel boards where opensource drivers just work.

      Nevertheless, it would be nice to see this work for real. Competition is always welcome. Frankly, it's weird that VIA hardware is geared towards embedded/mobile use, while providing drivers mainly for the most power-hungry OS on the planet.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  3. Re:Nvidia have already open sourced what they can by gmack · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because no one asked for their IP. All anyone wants is details on the API. They can keep their drivers.

    Nvida has also not open sourced "as much as possible" They got dragged kicking and screaming every step of the way. They didn't assist with open sourced drivers for their on board chipset devices until the open source folks reverse engineered the NVidia's drivers and did a better job than NVidia did.

    Intel can do it. ATI has promised to do it and now so does VIA. Why is NVidia different?

    I'm about 4 months from my next video card purchase and I will be taking a hard look at who has the best Linux support. A 10 FPS difference is not worth drivers that seem to need reinstalling every reboot (thanks NVIDIA).

  4. Re:Extend It To Crypto by TeknoHog · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Umm, this has been in the vanilla Linux kernel for a while. I've tried it with the C7 with great success, too bad the rest of the motherboard wasn't particularly good with Linux.

    --
    Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  5. linux.via.com.tw -- no such host by Big+Jojo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Their press announcement arrived before any content, sigh.

    The PR says the website will start with: drivers, technical documentation, source code, and information regarding the VIA CN700, CX700/M, CN896 and the new VIA VX800 chipsets. It'd be good to see docs on their more widely used chipsets, like vt8235 and vt8237 ... detailed ones, including errata. I mean, currently they piss off almost everyone who uses their chipsets, so why would anyone want to buy NEW hardware with VIA chips if it's not even clear the current stuff can be made to work well?

    It's a nice idea, years overdue. But even at that, pre-announced.