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VIA Releases FOSS Graphics Driver

Posted by kdawson on from the following-through dept.

billybob2 writes "VIA has released a 113,800 line open source graphics driver with full mode-setting support for CRT, LCD, and DVI devices along with 2D, X-Video, and cursor acceleration. Harald Welte, VIA's open source representative, states that the next step is to add 3D (see preview), TV-out, and hardware codec support while integrating this work with existing open source projects. VIA has pre-installed Linux on a significant portion of the company's latest products, including the EVEREX gPC2, 15.4" gBook, and CloudBook. It has also helped port the open source CoreBoot BIOS (previously LinuxBIOS) to several of its motherboards." VIA seems to be making good on the promise of its open source initiative announced last April.

12 of 153 comments (clear)

  1. I do hope this pans out... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I hope that this goes better than VIA's prior activities in this area. VIA has some very, very cute hardware for linux project purposes(loads of small form factor boards, without the restrictions that intel has been putting on atom), some decently interesting netbooks, etc.

    If I can trust that VIA video will actually work properly under linux, their boards become considerably more attractive for my purposes. The prospect of coreboot support for such boards would be gravy. I'd love to be able to put together some little linux widgets with linux burned right into the motherboard.

    1. Re:I do hope this pans out... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Via really has no choice.

      The intel 945G chipset for Atom is fully documented and has quite good open source 3d drivers.

      Atom kills VIA in Price/Performance/Power ratio across the board.

      Once Intel fixes the problem of their north bridge requiring 6x the power Atom does then via is in really big trouble

      It's interesting to see via go from ruling the mini-ITX market to now desparately having to play catchup in such a short time.

    2. Re:I do hope this pans out... by Jorophose · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Via really has no choice.

      Agreed, everyone except for nVidia and maybe Matrox (side note: what a shitty company) is opening their specs.

      The intel 945G chipset for Atom is fully documented and has quite good open source 3d drivers.

      It sucks up 22W+ by itself though, and is very old. It's nothing compared to the VX800 or CN896.

      Atom kills VIA in Price/Performance/Power ratio across the board.

      -Price: Maybe. If you just want entry-level options (ie bare to the bone) and don't care about power usage, it's definately cheaper. Normal VIA parts are sold like boutique items. Except, strangely, their mATX boards go for 50$.
      -Performance: Definately not, now that Nano has been released (but damnit sell 'em at retail!).
      -Power ration: What? Nano desktop parts are what people have been measuring. Typical ULV C7s are like 4W-7W. Considering you get a chipset that ranges in that wattage too, and this is honest counting unlike Intel, VIA certainely has the upper hand.

      Not to mention they don't need a P4 connector...

      Once Intel fixes the problem of their north bridge requiring 6x the power Atom does then via is in really big trouble

      Unlikely. Intel does not want to lose Celeron sales for the Atom. So their miniITX boards remain crap so they can sell whatever 945G boards they have left over that failed their low-voltage tests.

      It's interesting to see via go from ruling the mini-ITX market to now desparately having to play catchup in such a short time.

      I wouldn't call it catch up, but it's nice to see Intel and VIA compete. The only thing is I hope it drives down the price of VIA parts, at least within the 90$-150$ range, otherwise it's been a waste of time.

    3. Re:I do hope this pans out... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Matrox used to have wonderfully open hardware with the specs downloadable directly from their own website and a dedicated developer relations team to help with any queries. They were the perfect model of how to do it.

      Then something happened. I don't know what: brain-slugs, possibly. They yanked everything, even the specs for older hardware, and stopped communicating. What a bunch of dicks.

    4. Re:I do hope this pans out... by Patrick+Georgi · · Score: 5, Informative

      The intel 945G chipset for Atom is fully documented and has quite good open source 3d drivers.

      Our company works with almost a dozen hardware vendors, and none of them are so hard to work with and so open source hostile as intel. Try getting the documentation for the RAM controller of the chipset you mentioned.

  2. Re:Uh, Via, makes gfx cards? Why that is NEWS to m by Super+Jamie · · Score: 5, Informative

    they're mostly for onboard video chipsets, and this is awesome news for integrated devices and lightweight PCs like media centres, internet kiosks, settop boxes, netbooks, etc etc etc

    simply the fact that one of the largest video chipset manufacturers in the world is writing open source drivers is huge, and an awesome step forward for linux and foss in general

    not everything related to the phase "video card" is about pcie cards in sli and their crysis benchmark

  3. Arrghhhh by TheModelEskimo · · Score: 5, Informative

    So when I bought my Dell Ubuntu laptop last year, I thought, "Intel and nVidia are the LEAST evil of the graphics chipset manufaacturers." Wanting a little more oomph, I went with nVidia.

    Now, a year later, nVidia is looking ridiculous by clinging to closed-source binary drivers while the rest of the industry (including ATi, for pete's sake) go open. And the fact that freaking VIA is more open than nVidia really makes me feel...frustrated. Sorry nVidia, but I can't recommend you as long as you lag like this.

    1. Re:Arrghhhh by Yfrwlf · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, because sharing source code so that you can get extra help from the rest of the world so you can all work together on software is horrible and wasteful and will produce crappy software and is way too expensive for any company to do.

      Oh wait, there are several companies doing that already, never mind.

      I buy graphics cards for their hardware, and I expect the software to utilize the hardware as best it can, and if anyone can help with that and with fixing bugs etc then all the better.

      On the specific point of arguing "IP" politics though, do you honestly think the world has better graphics hardware right now because of the closed nature of graphics drivers? Because guess what, it's usually competition which spurs the development of better technology, competition which drives innovation in the world, so to tell me with a straight face that without the secrecy and closed nature of Nvidia's and ATI's graphics drivers, graphics technology would be further behind than if it were more open and there was more competition for making better hardware instead of screwing around with driver secrecy, that'd be a feat. I believe that most all patents and secrecy now days is nothing but harmful. In a world that's so inter-connected, there are very few examples I can find for justifying monopolies on ideas. They most always serve only to make the rich richer and poor poorer. (See Microsoft's patent FUD, for example, and try to tell me that did any good for the rest of the world.)

      --
      Promote true freedom - support standards and interoperability.
    2. Re:Arrghhhh by shermozle · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And in five years' time, when they've stopped supporting your card in the latest kernel version, you do what?

  4. Re:Almost unbelievable by digidave · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Obviously their motive is profit. They went the route of stealing code (although that might not have been management, just some rogue coder taking the easy way out) and it didn't work. VIA understands that there is a large and growing Linux community and that there is money to be made from being Linux-friendly.

    Just because their motive isn't selfless doesn't mean Linux supporters shouldn't welcome VIA with open arms. This is the sort of support we've wanted for many years.

    --
    The global economy is a great thing until you feel it locally.
  5. Re:Almost unbelievable by rossz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe they wronged the open source community in the past, maybe they didn't (I personally don't know). Let's show them that we are forgiving of past mistakes and fully welcome them and their donated code into the FOSS world. They made things right, let's not dwell on the past.

    --
    -- Will program for bandwidth
  6. Re: Matrox by Lonewolf666 · · Score: 5, Informative

    On top of that, they fell behind badly in terms of performance, and the great signal quality from their cards is mostly meaningless in the age of DVI.

    Looks almost like a case of corporate suicide, as in "nobody can be THAT stupid, so it must be intentional" ;-).

    --
    C - the footgun of programming languages