S3 Graphics Fails At Delivering Linux Driver

Ashmash writes "Phoronix is running a story about S3 Graphics failing to provide Linux support for their Chrome 500 products even though they have announced in press releases going back months that there is Linux support. S3 Graphics has gone as far as advertising OpenGL 3.0 support for Linux and one of their representatives had promised a driver by last December. This situation has been going on for months, but there is no Linux driver at all for the Chrome 500 series."

Comments

S3 is still around?

[Gojira Shipi-Taro]

This is news to me...

Pretty bad form to promise drivers and not come up with them. I wonder though, if their products are any good at all? Last S3 stuff (Virge, I think) that I saw was easily crushed by Nvidia and ATI.

Re:S3 is still around?

[Daengbo]

The integrated low-end graphics are OK, unless you're using Linux and the driver leaves horizontal lines across your screen, leaving you with no option but the vesa driver (you can guess who's in this situation with a work computer).

TFA's report seems to show a big gap between what marketing wants to happen and what management is really doing. They're at least six months behind on the drivers. That's too bad.

Re:S3 is still around?

[drinkypoo]

I guess it depends on what you define as "worth a crap," but it was the 3Dfx Voodoo chipset and GLQuake that *really* launched the PC as a serious gaming platform

This is a completely fair assessment. It was also something of a nightmare. I was completely blown away with it, but it was a serious annoyance, so serious that I actually bought a PowerVR. I think I still have it, although I don't think I've been static safe since... Once the TNT came out I never looked back. I escaped ATI's 3d stuff entirely (but had had plenty of problems just with Mach32 and Mach64 inconsistencies already) until I got a laptop with Rage Pro, of which it can be said that it is not pure trash. I had a Permedia2 card next which came at a steep price premium and had slightly less performance than a Voodoo 2 card but had about 56% less hassle - and which had real working OpenGL. But that was really a low-end pro card. I had a Riva128 for a moment, subjected it to defenestration when the TNT came out, and have never looked back - nVidia FTW!

nVidia has pulled some serious boners over the years but in general they have delivered the most workable 3d solution, cross-platform and all. I had just discovered what it was like to have money when this stuff was coming out, so I had most of it. I never spent much money on a CPU, so I was pretty familiar with which video cards were more and which were less CPU limited, which was actually a major feature of the 3dfx stuff at the time. But I still curse their name eternally for inventing GLIDE instead of just starting with MiniGL, which would have been a much kinder thing to do to the gaming industry and probably would have resulted in a world without Direct3D.

We can dream, can't we?

So what you're saying is...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Chrome still doesn't support Linux"

No surprise there.

Re:Maybe it's time to help out

[DJRumpy]

I'm a little confused as to why S3 isn't more open with the Linux community? They are obviously not top of the line and the technology they use isn't going to be snapped up by nVidia or ATI. I doubt that the big two are beating down their doors trying to plant industrial spys. Why won't they release specs? I know nothing about graphics hardware. Would releasing the specs expose them to corporate espionage of some sort?

Re:S3 has always been a synonym for "avoid"

[roystgnr]

For Linux users, even back to the early 1990s, S3 has been a synonym for "don't buy this graphics card".

"For Linux users"? I've never heard of any Windows user intentionally buying one, either... the ones who've heard of S3 know them as the company which once marketed a "3D decelerator", a card so slow that a new computer would be better off with software rendering.

Re:S3 has always been a synonym for "avoid"

[drinkypoo]

Yeah, you fucked that decision up. Next time get the low-profile card, bend the frame straight, and secure it with tape. GF440MX was a peach, sure it was slow, but so solid.