VIA Releases 16K-Line FOSS Framebuffer Driver

billybob2 writes "VIA has released 16,434 Lines Of Free & Open Source code that enables Linux natively to use the framebuffer on VIA's graphics chipsets. This comes a month after VIA announced that it will provide Open-Source drivers and documentation on its Web site so that its hardware will work out of the box with Linux distributions. This gives VIA-powered systems that come pre-installed with Linux — such as the gPC, 15.4" gBook, CloudBook, and Zonbu — the ability to output graphics through digital connections such as HDMI, and probably makes them the best-supported framebuffers Linux has ever had. Look forward to documentation and X.org drivers from VIA as well in the near future."

Comments

Re:More like giving up

[Anonymous Coward]

Even the much praised nVidia still lacks proper (read: in comparison with Windows) drivers Huh? No. The nvidia linux binary drivers are actually nearly identical to the windows ones, nvidia actually use the same sources for windows/linux/solaris. Performance is slightly higher on linux for the same card, and various nvidia and arb extensions to opengl 2.x make up for any power-differences from directx10 (that's something gamer fanboys tend not to understand, the opengl 3rd party extension mechanism, allowing for a stable core and bleeding-edge goodies at once.)

Now, the fact they're binary sucks, but they're binary on windows too. nvidia cards are _heavily_ used in the "pro" 3D area, as is (believe it or not) linux - these days, engineering workstations running windows are the exception rather than the rule (at least here in euro-land).

The problem is, nvidia differentiates their pro vs. gamer 3D cards mainly by software changes in the drivers. That's the real reason they're leery of open-sourcing them - they lose their artificial market stratification. ho hum.