Ubuntu Drops Support For AMD's Catalyst GPU Driver (phoronix.com)

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Ubuntu Drops Support For AMD's Catalyst GPU Driver (phoronix.com)

Posted by timothy on Wednesday March 9, 2016 @09:09AM from the burning-bridges-theory dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and newer will no longer be supporting AMD's widely-used Catalyst Linux (fglrx) driver. AMD has dropped support for this proprietary AMD driver in favor of encouraging users to use the open-source AMDGPU/Radeon drivers. While the fglrx/Catalyst driver is notorious among Linux gamers, this will represent a regression for many AMD Linux users due to the open-source driver only having OpenGL 4.1 support compared to OpenGL 4.5 in Catalyst, lower performance in common gaming workloads, incomplete OpenCL compute support, no CrossFire multi-GPU support, and other missing features. Much of the missing functionality will end up being implemented by AMD's new AMDGPU driver stack but that is still months away from being truly ready and will only benefit the very latest Radeon GPUs while the fglrx-free Ubuntu 16.04 is set to ship in April.

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A little pain for a lot of gain by poet · 2016-03-09 09:16 · Score: 5, Interesting

That is what this really boils down to.

--
Get your PostgreSQL here: http://www.commandprompt.com/
1. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by iggymanz · 2016-03-09 09:33 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  nope, the open source drivers are garbage, people will install the binaries from the vendor themselves
2. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 09:37 · Score: -1
  
  well said. Now lets see what the cattle says. "Oh I prefer to give up my freedom in order to play game x" :/
3. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 09:41 · Score: 0
  
  Yes, because everyone is a software engineer that needs to be able to modify their drivers.
  Dumbass.
4. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 09:42 · Score: 0
  
  in other words: I don't give a damn about my freedom, just let me play my stupid game.
5. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by iggymanz · 2016-03-09 09:52 · Score: 3
  
  wrong. people need a working video system to do serious work too. if the open source driver can't do the job they aren't going to throw away their card nor should they. The reality of the world isn't as beautiful as the followers of Stallman imagine. I don't play games and I use nvdidia binaries on my Linux Mint system. I'm not throwing away the used computer I bought on ebay because of "open source purity"
6. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 09:53 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  People run Linux for a variety of reasons, most of which aren't directly that the software is open source. If you want wide adoption of Linux, or a particular distribution, you have to cater to a wide range of users with a wide range of wands and needs. It's great that you're passionate about open source, but not everyone is that way, nor do they need to be. If you want people to use open source software, you have to satisfy many needs in the process. Sometimes that means being pragmatic and accept that a closed source solution is the best choice until a suitable open source solution is available. That people want their computer to be usable for their needs isn't stupid at all. I run Linux on several of my computers and I have many reasons, but open source is pretty far down on the list. I value that I don't have to pay for a lot of the software that I use, but I'm willing to donate to a few projects in return. I value the relative security, stability, and privacy afforded by running Linux. Some of the software I use for my job requires that I run Linux or a similar system. Some of these tools for visualizing meteorological data require a fair amount of video horsepower, so I certainly value any performance boost from the video driver. If all things are equal or pretty close to equal, I prefer an open source solution over a closed source solution. But it's pretty far down on my list of priorities. It doesn't mean that my needs are stupid at all, despite what you say.
7. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 09:55 · Score: 0
  
  in other words: I don't give a damn about my freedom, just let me play my stupid game.
  I don't play games and you would need to pay me to install a Radeon card under linux nowadays. Matrox was ok back in the day, Nvidia was quite good, but Radeons hell no. And let me tell you, I've always used Radeon cards under Windows starting with the Radeon 8500 (who even remembers it ?). I then used the Radeon 9800, the 1950 pro and each time it was a misery under linux. After the Radeon 1950 pro I graduated to Nvidia and frankly never looked back.
8. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by armanox · 2016-03-09 09:57 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Oh boo hoo, someone likes something that I don't. Perhaps people like having systems that actually work? Furthermore, how many people actually care if the video driver is open source? I know that I've never looked at the source for a video driver, and have no interest in doing so. Therefore, it makes no difference to me (and plenty of people like me) if it is closed source or open. I'd rather play the game then sit there and audit code.
  
  --
  I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
9. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by armanox · 2016-03-09 09:58 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  This is why people don't like the GNU groups - you are all about freedom as long as it is what you choose for others.
  
  --
  I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
10. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 10:02 · Score: -1
  
  B-B-BUT OPEN SOURCE!
  Fuck open source. I just want away from Windows, and absolutely want away from Apple.
  I literally give zero shits about whether a driver is a binary blob or something I can (and >95% do not) read.
  Not that it matters, because there is an actual good thing about open source here, we can overrule the pretentious morons that are behind the wheel of Ubuntu.
  Up yours Canonical.
11. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by iggymanz · 2016-03-09 10:11 · Score: -1, Flamebait
  
  so because of the proprietary code in your disk drive and usb devices and microwave oven you don't have freedom either? oh poor you, when will we be free? when, oh when, will we sit down with Stallman at the campfire and sing KumBayah and fellowship and run GPL v3 code in our breadmakers and eat toe cheese like free men?
12. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 10:14 · Score: -1
  
  Yeah, because clearly if I need to go and write low level driver code to get something to work properly, I'm more 'free'.
  Fuck off, zealout.
13. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 10:18 · Score: -1
  
  Fun fact, beardo, most people do not run Linux for their FREEDUMS, most people do it to Get Shit Done.
  Your little imaginary clubhouse where the entire Linux community even remotely give a damn about openness, freedom and personal oversight of code is hilarious.
  In fact, it is these types that are the exact reason Linux isn't a desktop OS. Which is funny since Ubuntu originally wanted to BE that Desktop OS, now they just seem to want to piss people off when they could hold off for a little while till a replacement comes. BUT NOOOO.
  Hahaha, freedom. Don't make me laugh.
14. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 10:33 · Score: 1
  
  AC poster here.
  I'm not saying everybody should go open source or die.
  If you want to play games, the open source driver is not there yet. If you run OpenCL, it's not there yet. Those are obvious statements.
  But for many other tasks it might be good enough. Me, I can live without games. I have a 1GB no fan card, which is good enough for me. Your threshold might be different than mine. I can understand that.
  Lastly, if you value your privacy, you might want to give up some things. However if nobody gives a damn about freedom (nobody is willing to sacrifice anything), then the situation will never ever change. This is same old song since day 1 for OSS.
  I agree with what you said though.
15. Re: A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 11:06 · Score: 1
  
  And what is it that keeps open source an alternative to the platforms you want to escape? The thing you don't give two shits about.
16. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 11:19 · Score: 0
  
  Freedom includes the right to distribute and use software without its source code.
17. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by qubezz · 2016-03-09 11:44 · Score: 1
  
  The binaries are kernel-specific and X version specific garbage. Take a 2011 laptop or your average Dell computer with a AMD HD 3xxx video card, the proprietary drivers dropped support within a few years and you can't even update Ubuntu 12.04.x or you lose support.
18. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 11:47 · Score: 0
  
  You can thank the kernel developers.
19. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by exomondo · 2016-03-09 11:53 · Score: 1
  
  in other words: I don't give a damn about my freedom, just let me play my stupid game.
  Kind of, but don't be so melodramatic, in reality it is:
  "I don't give a damn about my freedom to modify my graphics driver, just let me use my computer to play games and run applications "
  And yes this is true of the vast majority of computer users.
20. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 12:00 · Score: 1
  
  Have you tried the nouveau drivers recently? I replaced some legacy nvidia drivers with the open source ones, and was pleasantly surprised.
  As long as reclocking your card is supported, you should give it a try.
21. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 12:22 · Score: 0
  
  So, what are these jobs are you doing in Linux that the open driver can't handle? Surely you're not running AutoCAD, or something like that. Enlighten us, what are these mythical jobs Linux can't do?
  Realistically speaking the only thing you could do on Linux, where the graphics drivers are going to hamper you, are games. And guess what. 90% of all users don't give a shit about your World of Battlefield. They play solitaire and that's about it, something the open driver is more than capable to deal with.
22. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Dcnjoe60 · 2016-03-09 12:53 · Score: 1
  
  Pretty hard when it is AMD that is dropping support for the binary.
23. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 12:55 · Score: 0
  
  Correct, I use Linux because I don't want the headaches of running+maintaining Windows including the lack of privacy. However, I am ok with a couple binary blobs to support video hardware.
  Things are seldom black and white. Life is about choosing shades of grey.
24. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by KGIII · 2016-03-09 13:16 · Score: 1
  
  I'm not a gamer but there's all sorts of ways to enjoy one's freedom. I think the appropriate word would be liberties but I'm going to guess that that's not something we'll agree on. However, one does have a liberty to decide to not utilize a freedom. Different people have different priorities, they may not match your own. I may use Linux but I'm glad that people are both free and at liberty to choose closed source - if they want. I may not make that choice but I'm glad that they can.
  
  --
  "So long and thanks for all the fish."
25. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 14:12 · Score: 0
  
  Developing and applying OpenCL codes...
26. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 16:15 · Score: 0
  
  I'd rather play the game then sit there and audit code.
  http://www.grammar-monster.com/easily_confused/than_then.htm
27. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 16:17 · Score: 0
  
  Perhaps because of all the people who will stubbornly cling to the binary-blobs of old otherwise.
28. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by bridgmanAMD · 2016-03-09 16:36 · Score: 1
  
  FYI this isn't about "dropping Catalyst", it's about moving from the closed-source Linux Catalyst stack to the mostly-open amdgpu-based hybrid stack, based on the open-source amdgpu driver stack plus closed-source OpenGL, OpenCL and Vulkan usermode drivers.
29. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by armanox · 2016-03-09 17:11 · Score: 1
  
  You understood the message, so it doesn't matter. And when I do play with source code, it is normally at night after I've finished gaming anyway (I worked with porting libreSSL to AIX and IRIX for a while there, plus some small projects of my own). So there are rare occasions that my statement becomes true. To date though, I've never sifted through the code for a video driver.
  
  --
  I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
30. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 17:45 · Score: 0
  
  In that case the mesa software driver is enough for you and you don't need to bother with the 3d-accelerated driver at all.
31. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by houstonbofh · 2016-03-09 18:13 · Score: 1
  
  in other words: I don't give a damn about my freedom, just let me play my stupid game.
  Or they need openCL for number crunching, and the FOSS drivers do not have that. But people outside of your use case are obviously all idiots anyway, so why worry...
32. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by houstonbofh · 2016-03-09 18:16 · Score: 1
  
  You can thank the kernel developers.
  You got it backwards...
33. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by houstonbofh · 2016-03-09 18:17 · Score: 1
  
  well said. Now lets see what the cattle says. "Oh I prefer to give up my freedom in order to play game x" :/
  Or, perhaps to some people Linux is a tool, not a religion.
34. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by narcc · 2016-03-09 19:50 · Score: 1
  
  No, no. See, that's just the order in which he prefers to perform those tasks. First, he plays a game. After that, he winds down with a code audit, provided, of course, that it isn't video driver code.
  
  --
  Required reading for internet skeptics
35. Re: A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 21:33 · Score: 0
  
  While I'm sure this will get mark as troll. It seems fitting to return the favor to all the Linux fans who always post something similar in windows related articles. So....
  Just migrate your system to Windows 7 and you won't have any of these silly driver issues. I have moved all of my home computers over to Windows 7 and haven't looked back. No more driver issues, no recompile this or just use a CLI and typing a whole bunch of commands. And most of the open source software I use is already available on Windows like Libra Office, Gimp, Firefox, and thunderbird. I have moved my grandmother's computer over to Windows 7 and she doesn't complain any more.
  I feel better now.
  Regards,
  Imprezza86
36. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 21:46 · Score: 0
  
  >Furthermore, how many people actually care if the video driver is open source? I know that I've never looked at the source for a video driver, and have no interest in doing so. Therefore, it makes no difference to me (and plenty of people like me) if it is closed source or open. I'd rather play the game then sit there and audit code.
  I care if the video driver is closed source. It has extremely fast DMA access to the entire system and could easily make the entire system turn against me and extract god knows what and send it to adversaries - with me non the wiser.
  So while I don't care much about source code for obscure things that are connected via serial or usb, possibly one-way (GPS etc), I DO care about video drivers. And you should, too, whether you personally read the source or not.
37. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 22:10 · Score: 0
  
  First of all, that's coming, and probably a lot sooner than all the various micro optimizations that makes up the bulk of the difference between the proprietary driver and the open one, and secondly, that's even more marginal than the loud-mouthed gamer community.
38. Re: A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 22:12 · Score: 0
  
  Cool story. Let's discussion again in 6 months when you'll have to reinstall these computers for various reasons....
39. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by medoc · 2016-03-09 23:40 · Score: 1
  
  Nobody forces you to use GPLed software.
  The people who write it have the right to distribute it as they see fit.
  You are still free to go buy other software or write your own. But bitching because free software does come with strings attached is seriously disingenuous,
40. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-10 02:21 · Score: 0
  
  That's bull I know many users that keep Windows just because they can't play the latest games in Linux. You might only play solitair that doesn't mean everyone does. I like Solitaire I also like GTA and Witcher and many other games as well and want good performance across the board. I also want movies that don't tear without me setting up additional composting software on top of everything else.
41. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by oh_my_080980980 · 2016-03-10 02:54 · Score: 1
  
  Listen ass-hole, "open source" people are bitching that Nvidia drivers are closed and that you shouldn't use drivers that are proprietary. The open source community wants to make the decision for the end user as opposed to leaving it the end user. That's fucking stupid. The only fucking reason the end user would care about an open source driver is that the manufacturer did not provide a driver (closed or open). People want to use that piece of hardware and however it works with Linux, is the way they will go. It's about fucking choice. Where open source truly matters is the Linux Kernel. Why it matters there is mostly due to legal issues. After that it doesn't matter. It would be nice if the manufacturer would provide an open source driver or work with the Linux community in developing one. But as long a driver is provided, it matters not.
42. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-10 03:58 · Score: 0
  
  I'd say open source people bitching about things is perfectly fine. They're exercising their freedom of speech.
  What they're not doing is updating the kernel to make it impossible to run the proprietary drivers or otherwise forcing you to do what they think is best. It's fucking stupid to say that they're trying to decide for you.
43. Re: A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-10 03:59 · Score: 0
  
  I won't have to reload because my systems are stable and never crash. They have been fine since the day Windows 7 came out. Only a Linux fan would make such claims about having to reload your computer all the time. I can't imagine all the chaos Linux fans go through every time new distro release becomes available.
  -imprezza86
44. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-10 04:02 · Score: 0
  
  Yup... People don't realize that built-in quality GPU drivers mean never again trying to complete the complex dance of fglrx replacing your libGL. Having video drivers "just work" out of the box is a magical thing. I'm willing to take a small temporary FPS hit for that perfect world.
45. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by medoc · 2016-03-10 04:39 · Score: 1
  
  Feel free to install Windows 10 and see what freedoms this gains you. And if you think that insults and profanities give weight to your arguments, you need to think again...
46. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Bitbeisser · 2016-03-10 05:39 · Score: 1
  
  nope, the open source drivers are garbage, ....
  Well, it's Open Source, so help fix it. Or so the lore says...
47. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-10 09:34 · Score: 0
  
  the Kernal Devs can thank him?
  that doesn't make sense
48. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-10 09:37 · Score: 0
  
  a lot more than with assholes like you telling them what to do and what to like it seems
49. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by exomondo · 2016-03-10 09:46 · Score: 1
  
  Feel free to install Windows 10 and see what freedoms this gains you.
  You don't have to be such an absolutist. Thanks to freedom of choice I can modify the open source driver if I want, I can use that in certain cases if I want and I can choose the best tool for the job. If a game or application runs better with the proprietary drivers then use those while you're playing that game and switch to the open source drivers if they work better for a different task.
  This idea of "if you don't run open source drivers you might as well run Windows" is retarded, not that long ago pretty much everybody running Linux was using proprietary blobs, in fact most still are for at least some hardware (actually pretty much all if you consider the microcode in your CPU).
50. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by medoc · 2016-03-10 20:23 · Score: 1
  
  I do agree with this in fact, and I quite probably run binary blobs on some of my computers. This is besides the point.
  The point is that I respect the right of the people who give me a free license to use their software to decide the terms of the license.
  If I disagree with these, the only reasonable answer is to use something else (which I would pay for), not abuse them saying that they don't respect my freedom.
51. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by stoatwblr · 2016-03-11 01:05 · Score: 1
  
  People should define the video card by what works with their software, not the other way around.
  That said, it's frustrating how poor the opensource drivers have been over the years. Even more so when the closed source ones don't support older devices. (I run a 4-head quadro rig. Nivida stopped supporting the cards in their driver 4 years ago.)
52. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by iggymanz · 2016-03-12 13:57 · Score: 1
  
  yes, they sucked. my machine froze repeatedly. guess that's almost like your experience, I sure was surprised.
53. Re:A little pain for a lot of gain by exomondo · 2016-03-13 11:10 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah that's fair enough, I agree with that.
Doesn't particularly matter by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 09:17 · Score: 1

SteamOS is downstream from Debian, which has not deprecated fglrx yet and probably won't until the new AMD driver comes out.
1. Re:Doesn't particularly matter by ausekilis · 2016-03-09 09:51 · Score: 2
  
  SteamOS is downstream from Debian, which has not deprecated fglrx yet and probably won't until 6 months after the new AMD driver comes out.
  Fixed that for you.
  
  Just because Ubuntu doesn't support it doesn't mean some group out there won't fill in the gap. Webupd8.org comes to mind.
2. Re:Doesn't particularly matter by westlake · 2016-03-09 11:23 · Score: 0
  
  SteamOS is downstream from Debian, which has not deprecated fglrx yet and probably won't until the new AMD driver comes out.
  Ubuntu has 0.4% share of the Steam Market. 40% of Linux's pathetic 1% share of the Steam market. Steam Hardware & Software Survey: February 2016 Stats for SteamOS or the Steam Machine aren't to be found here, or anywhere else for that matter.
  I suspect because the numbers are so bad no one wants to see them in print.
3. Re:Doesn't particularly matter by houstonbofh · 2016-03-09 18:18 · Score: 1
  
  There will be PPAs. :)
4. Re:Doesn't particularly matter by houstonbofh · 2016-03-09 18:22 · Score: 1
  
  You need to drill down better. Ubuntu 15.10 in 19% of Linux. 14.04.3 is 17%. Other is 44% Since they only had room for 3 flavors of Ubuntu (Mint arguably is) the Steam box could be 4th and 5th place (There were two versions) for all we know.
Customer support? by Anne+Thwacks · 2016-03-09 09:18 · Score: 3, Funny

From the "are-you-nuts?" department
Ubuntu does not exist to support customers. That is what Windows is for!

--
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
1. Re:Customer support? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 09:32 · Score: 0
  
  Windows supports customers?
  Do you have an example?
2. Re:Customer support? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 09:34 · Score: 0
  
  You really brought a lot to the discussion. Thanks for your insight. It's really great.
3. Re:Customer support? by D.McG. · 2016-03-09 09:50 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Yes, but I came here for an argument!!
  OH! Oh! I'm sorry! This is abuse!
  Oh! Oh I see!
  Aha! No, you want room 12A, next door.
  Oh...Sorry...
  Not at all! stupid git.
4. Re:Customer support? by the_other_one · 2016-03-09 11:04 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Windows supports customers?
  Do you have an example?
  It downloads the next version for the customer when they forget to ask for it.
  
  --
  134340: I am not a number. I am a free planet!
5. Re:Customer support? by StillAnonymous · 2016-03-09 15:31 · Score: 1
  
  I got a phone call from Windows support the other day. The kind gentleman on the phone advised me that my IP address had a virus and to let him into my computer so he could fix it.
6. Re: Customer support? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-10 02:16 · Score: 0
  
  Someone called you telling that it was Microsoft support and you had a virus, and then, you let him mess with your system.
  Youâ(TM)re must be kinding. Aren't you?
  It's a sarcasmo. Isn't it?
Alternatives by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 09:24 · Score: -1

Or you could quit bitching and buy one of the new, state of the art gaming platforms like Nintendo 64 or Atari
I don't use my car to cross the Atlantic... by Foxhoundz · 2016-03-09 09:30 · Score: -1, Troll

And Linux users shouldn't expect to play AAA games any time soon. Linux was never meant for gaming.
1. Re:I don't use my car to cross the Atlantic... by Nunya666 · 2016-03-09 09:36 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  Linux was never meant for gaming.
  And neither was Windows.
  
  There's an interesting concept called "progress" that you might want to learn about.
  
  If AAA games ever do run on Linux, and run just as well as they do on Windows,then that will be the beginning of the end for Windows.
2. Re:I don't use my car to cross the Atlantic... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 09:58 · Score: 0
  
  Install steam and see for yourself.
3. Re:I don't use my car to cross the Atlantic... by Foxhoundz · 2016-03-09 09:59 · Score: 1
  
  If AAA games ever do run on Linux, and run just as well as they do on Windows,then that will be the beginning of the end for Windows.
  Yes, but that will never happen. It didn't happen in 1995, 2000, 2005, 2015, and it won't happen now.
4. Re:I don't use my car to cross the Atlantic... by MachineShedFred · 2016-03-09 10:17 · Score: 1
  
  That's one whopper of an 'if'. We've been waiting for gaming performance parity for a decade now, and it's still not here.
  
  --
  Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
5. Re:I don't use my car to cross the Atlantic... by Harlequin80 · 2016-03-09 10:29 · Score: 1
  
  Why not? It does it very well. I play plently of games in Linux, some of them even AAA games. Sure there are still lots of games that are windows only but there are heaps that work in Linux and it's not just random indie games.
6. Re:I don't use my car to cross the Atlantic... by Harlequin80 · 2016-03-09 10:32 · Score: 1
  
  Actually I think you are wrong. Not because of any desire to support Linux but out of a desire by developers to support linux but a desire to protect themselves from a Microsoft own online store monopoly. Microsoft are clearly looking to create a store that is there by default in every windows install. What published won't want is to be held over a barrel to sell to windows. If 10% of the market is linux and there is a platform, ie steam, that lets you sell to that market, then the game will support it.
  This will however only happen as the next generation of game engines are released.
7. Re: I don't use my car to cross the Atlantic... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 12:21 · Score: 0
  
  But i thought this was the year of the Linux desktop! Rofl
8. Re:I don't use my car to cross the Atlantic... by zennyboy · 2016-03-09 14:54 · Score: 1
  
  Actually I think you are wrong. Not because of any desire to support Linux but out of a desire by developers to support linux but a desire to protect themselves from a Microsoft own online store monopoly. Microsoft are clearly looking to create a store that is there by default in every windows install. What published won't want is to be held over a barrel to sell to windows. If 10% of the market is linux and there is a platform, ie steam, that lets you sell to that market, then the game will support it.
  This will however only happen as the next generation of game engines are released.
  Besides, MS only wants to cross the EU so many times. If MS 'encourages' an MS store so much it manages to oust Steam, the EU will come down on them again...
9. Re:I don't use my car to cross the Atlantic... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 15:41 · Score: 0
  
  Are Alien: Isolation and XCom 2 considered AAA games? Not sure if they run exactly as fast as they do on Windows, but I did see them running at very smooth frame rates on Linux.
10. Re:I don't use my car to cross the Atlantic... by Blaskowicz · 2016-03-09 16:26 · Score: 1
  
  So Windows is bad because of a monopolistic store, but Linux games are good because of a monopolistic store?(Steam)
  I think Steam is a mild impediment, though it otherwise allowed linux gaming on its own.
  With security and privacy scandals happening daily or weekly, I'm wary of having to run a single platform that reports by the second what you're playing and when you're playing to the mothership, a US company, and it's unescapable and under your real identity. The thing is that it will go on for decades, too. We decry it when it's Windows 10, but Valve gets a free pass because they made a good game in the late 90s. It's as if you took note of every book and newspaper you read, how many pages you read and and the end of every single day you report it all to the government.
  Under Windows you can run games outside that behemoth. Perhaps only some classic games or cracked games, but the option is there and that represents many thousand games.
  I hope we'll one day get some sort of software GPU (can use OpenCL/Cuda etc.) that runs under Virtualbox or KVM etc. with driver for Windows 98, XP, XP64 etc., then I'll be able to run some games again.
11. Re:I don't use my car to cross the Atlantic... by Harlequin80 · 2016-03-09 17:10 · Score: 1
  
  Huh? I'm not making any comment on whether Steam is good or bad. I'm talking about an incentive for game publishers to support platforms outside of windows. Steam doesn't hold a monopoly on game distribution, though it is by far the biggest. But people choose to install steam. If windows comes bundled with the microsoft store then it is no different to it being bundled with IE and eating netscapes lunch.
  Also steam isn't the only way of playing games in linux. Linux is no different to windows in that regard. Get the linux binaries and run them, lots of humble bundle games are like that for example. Just at the moment Valve is the only one trying to develop the linux market.
  What I am getting at is that publishers see the level of take that Apple and Google are making off the mobile app stores and don't want to be in that same situation on the PC. Sure you can download and install software independently on windows, but if there is a store front installed with windows by default it will inherently grab a huge market share & if it grabs enough market share microsoft can start saying things like "if you want to be listed in our store your software can ONLY be listed in our store".
  The only real solution to that is to break up the PC market base. If games start running on linux then one of that last barriers starts to disappear. It doesn't need to be huge %s but get a linux install base to 10% and you are starting to talk a serious amount of money to publishers.
  There isn't the cracking base targetting linux binaries currently so games for that platform are less likely to be pirated. But there is nothing inherent about that. And most of the older games you are talking about will work just find under wine. It is the newer programs that dont.
12. Re:I don't use my car to cross the Atlantic... by Blaskowicz · 2016-03-09 18:08 · Score: 1
  
  I realized that my writing wasn't really an answer to something in particular you said, but it was sent and I otherwise stand by my rant.
  
  humble bundle games
  Time-limited sales that have ended by the time you heard of it. That's too weird for me (or perhaps they are torrented around, that would explain slashdot users that say "But you can run Game X from humble bundle")
13. Re:I don't use my car to cross the Atlantic... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 18:23 · Score: 0
  
  What are you smoking?
  Parity arrived 6 years ago with GL4.0.
14. Re:I don't use my car to cross the Atlantic... by Harlequin80 · 2016-03-09 18:32 · Score: 1
  
  Ok some alternatives then, Prison Architect - https://www.introversion.co.uk..., Europa Universalis 4 - http://www.europauniversalis4.....
  That said the higher the profile the game the more likely they are to come stuck to steam. Borderland series, Xcom series, Civilisation series. They all work in linux but they come via the steam system. But that is no different to windows.
  And if you want to pop over to Humblebundle.com now they have 2 bundles of which some are linux compatible. But they are all steam delivered. One is Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II which while long in the tooth is a good game.
That's a problem for me by Dukenukemx · 2016-03-09 09:36 · Score: 1

I have many machines that use Mint 17.3 but Catalyst or Crimson doesn't function well on my HP G6 with AMD A4 3300. Some reason the laptop turns on but the display is off. Not until I close the lid and open it again will the display turn on. This bug persists with Ubuntu 16.04 and even with Oibaf PPA which gives me the latest open source drivers. The drivers work great but I'd like to see something done cause this isn't a new problem.
Nomodeset does get the display to work but no 3D acceleration. Quick Google shows the problem is as old as 2012 at least.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showth...
1. Re:That's a problem for me by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 16:16 · Score: 0
  
  It's probably the SSE4a instructions on your CPU. Some older libraries, like Intel IPP v6.x, mis-detect this as SSE4.1 or SSE 4.2 and do weird and wonderful things as a result.
Woops by Dukenukemx · 2016-03-09 09:37 · Score: 1

Meant to say Catalyst and Crimson do work but the open source drivers don't.
Why not just use nVidia? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 09:38 · Score: 0, Insightful

Everyone knows Radeons suck under Linux, just drop a cheap nVidia card in and be done with it. Next problem.
A better plan by kuzb · 2016-03-09 09:38 · Score: 0

Just drop AMD from your equipment. You'll be a lot better off.

--
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
No equivelant replacement is a bad idea. by fishscene · 2016-03-09 09:39 · Score: 3, Insightful

Dropping support for something without having a reasonable replacement is usually a bad idea. But it's a good idea if you're trying to decrease choice, increase frustration, and leave the people who depend on you hanging. It might make things easier on the development side, but the long-term affects can be far reaching. Personally, I'd think the people who would have a problem with this would just move to a distribution that *does* have it - and then you've lost market share. It's hard to get back people who have already moved away.
1. Re:No equivelant replacement is a bad idea. by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 09:49 · Score: 0
  
  Dropping support without having a reasonable replacement is the wave of the twenty-teens!
  Think of all the products that have been "improved" by losing popular functions. Gnome 3, systemd, and now AMD GPUs!
2. Re:No equivelant replacement is a bad idea. by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 10:27 · Score: 0
  
  You forgot Windows.
  Every version of Windows since Vista has lost some pretty basic features in large numbers that have just made managing the OS more and more painful.
  It accelerated from Win8 and more so 10.
  By Windows 11 it will be back to DOS fullscreen.
  PROGRESS
3. Re:No equivelant replacement is a bad idea. by Harlequin80 · 2016-03-09 10:33 · Score: 2
  
  Ubuntu has form in this area. PulseAudio and Unity are two of the biggest examples. They were pushed out before they were ready and made life hell. It was a major factor in me leaving that distro.
4. Re:No equivelant replacement is a bad idea. by KiloByte · 2016-03-09 11:17 · Score: 1
  
  You're saying this as if PulseAudio was on the way to ever be ready. Like systemd, its author[s] ignore[s] all bugs that don't apply on his particular system.
  
  --
  The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
5. Re:No equivelant replacement is a bad idea. by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 11:34 · Score: 0
  
  Sounds like how the IT department here at work operates. Their default response is, "It's working fine on my computer", followed by, "I'll get to it later."
6. Re:No equivelant replacement is a bad idea. by Harlequin80 · 2016-03-09 12:57 · Score: 1
  
  I don't know. Now audio just seems to work on my linux machines. Analogue, optical, surround, hdmi so from my perspective it seems pretty good. I've no doubt that there are some issues somewhere but I haven't run into them for years.
7. Re:No equivelant replacement is a bad idea. by KiloByte · 2016-03-09 15:40 · Score: 1
  
  On the machine I'm using right now:
  * quiet but annoying noise all the time
  * badly distorted sound after suspend+resume until "killall pulseaudio"
  neither of these is hardware's fault as alsa works perfectly.
  I could actually use one of pulseaudio's features, redirecting streams on runtime between headphonesspeakers... had it worked correctly.
  
  --
  The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
8. Re:No equivelant replacement is a bad idea. by Harlequin80 · 2016-03-09 16:32 · Score: 1
  
  Bugger that sucks. Which distro are you using? I have mint 14 on one machine and mint 17 on another, so both using pulse but no issues. I would need to test the suspend resume though as I never use that feature. But I certainly don't have any noise
9. Re:No equivelant replacement is a bad idea. by Blaskowicz · 2016-03-09 16:34 · Score: 1
  
  I will be waiting for Windows 11 then.
  Vista/7 lost the ability to run DOS fullscreen, and DOS graphics (there are a few text mode DOS games, those will run)
10. Re:No equivelant replacement is a bad idea. by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 17:55 · Score: 0
  
  Reasonable replacement: buy an Nvidia graphics card.
  (Yes, I'm 100% serious. Don't bother trying to use an AMD video card on Linux. This has been the prevailing wisdom for over a decade, so I thought everyone already knew that already.)
11. Re:No equivelant replacement is a bad idea. by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 19:11 · Score: 0
  
  neither of these is hardware's fault as alsa works perfectly.
  ...until you try to use alsa timers.
  Hint: Both of those are symptoms of sound hardware/alsa driver with broken timer support.
  And guess what, PA still supports tsched=0 for exactly this case.
12. Re:No equivelant replacement is a bad idea. by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 23:04 · Score: 0
  
  Most of the "bugs" aren't even in PulseAudio but the bloody UX implementations on top of it.
  PulseAudio didn't work right under Ubuntu 16.04 for me either. Then I installed pavucontrol and it suddenly began working just fine (better than any pure ALSA config).
  Ubuntu's standard audio controls were the culprit there.
13. Re:No equivelant replacement is a bad idea. by bridgmanAMD · 2016-03-10 04:21 · Score: 2
  
  Just to be clear, this isn't "Ubuntu dropping Catalyst" it's "AMD transitioning from Linux Catalyst to amdgpu hybrid". The new hybrid driver (amdgpu open source stack plus "Catalyst" closed source OpenGL, OpenCL & Vulkan) won't be ready in time for 16.04 integration, so Canonical is focusing on the open source drivers for 16.04 launch.
  
  So no plans to force you all to use the open source drivers... the breaking news here is "AMD in the process of replacing Linux Catalyst with amdgpu-based hybrid driver" which we announced last year.
It's all about choice... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 09:39 · Score: 0

except when we want you to use what we want you to use.
Not completely correct. by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 09:41 · Score: -1

Support for AMD graphics cards is so crappy that people will just migrate to Nvidia. I did that and achieved instant bliss, er, well, as blissful as any Linux on the desktop experience can be.
1. Re:Not completely correct. by iggymanz · 2016-03-09 10:04 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  yeah if you use the proprietary nvidia drivers it works great. too bad the open source one sucks. I wished I lived in the world where everything was open source, even the firmware in my disk drives and bios and usb devices......but we don't live in that world
2. Re:Not completely correct. by exomondo · 2016-03-09 10:12 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  yeah if you use the proprietary nvidia drivers it works great. too bad the open source one sucks.
  Do you really think any significant portion of gamers and other end users care about that? They want their systems to work well, they don't want to be writing driver code and recompiling hardware drivers.
3. Re:Not completely correct. by KGIII · 2016-03-09 12:57 · Score: 1
  
  Gotta tell you, I very seldom have any issues with the open source drivers of either type. If I do, then I just toss another distro on and see what happens. That's it.
  Now, the heaviest thing my GPU's going to face is playing a movie - and probably not even in high definition. So, I'm not sure what good my response does.
  I very, very seldom use the proprietary drivers. It's not that I care, it's just that I might as well use source that I could read if I wanted to. I'm not only not going to read it, I'm not even going to understand half of it. It's even less likely that I'd be able to fix it. Nope. I just don't figure I'll put stuff on there that I can't see, just in case I ever feel like looking.
  And it works. It works just fine. I did have a Mint Cinnamon 17.2 tearing issue with the open source nVidia drivers. I put my preferred distro back on there. The problem went away. It would tear a couple of times, toss me to TTY, and not start X again until reboot. I played around with trying to fix it. I gave up and put Lubuntu on. Other than that, I've not had any problems with video drivers in a while.
  Mint works fine on a similarly aged GPU that is ATi. Which is completely and totally backwards, I guess.
  I don't ask for much out of them. Just a movie. Maybe a high definition version of Zork. I guess my question is what kind of problems are you (or others) experiencing? Is it just for games or other intense tasks? Right now, I tend to try to go AMD CPU and nVidia GPU but that's not always an option and I'm not beholden to any one company - but have a mild preference for supporting AMD. I don't (usually) do more than two or three monitors. I get confused with too many. I did have a setup that was driving six and it was kind of sexy but I was constantly distracted and my 'work'-flow never really seemed to fit it. That was fine. Expensive, but fine.
  Where's it breaking? The above tearing and then ceasing to restart issues were the last time I've had any issues. Is it just games or where else? I'm mostly just curious so that I know what to avoid as I may actually be doing some more intensive things in the not-too-distant future but I suspect that's mostly going to be video editing. I should probably be a bit prepared for this. :/
  
  --
  "So long and thanks for all the fish."
4. Re:Not completely correct. by hairyfeet · 2016-03-09 14:45 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  So stop saying you care about the four freedoms and just admit the community only cares about free as in beer because that is EXACTLY what we are talking about here. One company has completely opened their code, the other is so hostile to Linux that Linus Torvalds himself gave them the finger and said "fuck you!" to the company.
  If that is the way the community truly feels, that all that matters is it being FAIB? Just download and run the Win 10 insider edition, its FAIB for anybody. If you actually care about the four freedoms? Then show companies that it matters that they support FOSS by buying their products. Yes it will take time to reach feature parity, they are building the entire graphics stack from scratch minus the proprietary Intel code (Intel owns HDCP which has to be stripped out) but they have full docs and support from AMD so they are doing exactly what the community asked them to and completely opened the specs.
  If the community refuses to support them after doing all they were asked to do? Then you have NO right to bitch when companies refuse to support Linux because Linux users will have shown that support does not turn into sales.
  
  --
  ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
5. Re:Not completely correct. by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 15:26 · Score: 1
  
  If it's an open source driver, then hopefully it will be included with the Linux kernel and you won't have to worry about it breaking every time there's a kernel upgrade, like the fglrx driver has a bad habit of doing.
  This is the main reason I switched to the radeon driver, despite lower frame rates and compatibility.
6. Re:Not completely correct. by exomondo · 2016-03-09 16:11 · Score: 1
  
  So stop saying you care about the four freedoms and just admit the community only cares about free as in beer because that is EXACTLY what we are talking about here.
  Whoa there cowboy, I think you replied to the wrong post, or didn't read properly. I didn't ever say I care about the four freedoms, in fact I pointed out that most people - me included - are quite content with whatever works the best, be it proprietary or free software. If the best option is Linux with an AMD GPU and open source drivers then sure I'll buy an AMD card when upgrade time comes.
7. Re:Not completely correct. by houstonbofh · 2016-03-09 18:11 · Score: 2
  
  So stop saying you care about the four freedoms and just admit the community only cares about free as in beer because that is EXACTLY what we are talking about here.
  Because it is all or nothing... Nope. I care about FOSS, and open software. But I NEED it to fucking work! So I run nVidia, and have for a while. I remember getting my second nVidia card, a 7950, and being excited. And it would still work fine now! Not so with AMD. I do run nouveau on one of my systems where 3D is not as critical, but it is just not there yet. Hopefully it will be one day. But in the mean time, I need my card to work!
8. Re:Not completely correct. by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 20:48 · Score: 0
  
  One company has completely opened their code,
  I must have missed that. The first few hundred times people claimed the Open Source driver for AMD hardware as usable it sucked because AMD only dumped the specs without providing anything in the form of implementation ( in my experience with catalyst this may actually be a good thing ). The next few hundred times it still sucked since many Games rely on drivers to work around their bullshit - all the game specific hacks are one of the reasons windows GPU drivers tend to be bloated. In the end I just stopped caring about AMD and the reality warping field their fan boys live in.
  
  the other is so hostile to Linux that Linus Torvalds himself gave them the finger and said "fuck you!" to the company.
  Linus is a kernel developer, binary drivers make his live hard since he cannot reason about the kernel state when one is active. Further they only support what NVIDIA itself implements, which can be annoying since Linux specific features like kernel mode switching come with a long delay. There is nothing outright hostile by NVIDIA.
  
  . If you actually care about the four freedoms?
  You already lost the moment you choose to run kernel fixed on the GPLv2, a license which has been declared insufficient and replaced with GPLv3 several years ago. If you really want the four freedoms you want to run GNU/Hurd on free and open hardware.
  For me privacy is enough and most Linux versions have a better track record than Microsoft and the GPLv2 is enough to keep the source open.
9. Re:Not completely correct. by greenfruitsalad · 2016-03-09 21:10 · Score: 1
  
  what's that noise coming out of your computer right now? it's the gpu fan spinning like crazy, because the opensource amd driver can't regulate it properly based on gpu load. i had that problem with hd6970, r9 280x and still see the same problem with my cousin's r9 390x.
10. Re:Not completely correct. by Kjella · 2016-03-09 21:28 · Score: 1
  
  So stop saying you care about the four freedoms and just admit the community only cares about free as in beer because that is EXACTLY what we are talking about here.
  I see you've been taking diplomacy lessons from George W. Bush, either you're with us or you're with the terrorists. I don't mind paying for a closed source AAA game to run on under free-as-in-beer closed source Steam on top of open source Linux, so shoot me. I value the four freedoms as a good thing, but it's a trade-off between that and what proprietary software offers. I'd like a distro that puts me in control so that I can decide what's best for me. Not a distro that has already decided that because I want Linux over Windows, I must also want open source over Catalyst, GIMP over Photoshop, LibreOffice over MS Office, Firefox over Chrome and that I should have no choice in the matter, it's all the way or not at all. If you don't see a problem with that type of reasoning, well the problem is on your end not mine.
  
  --
  Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
11. Re:Not completely correct. by SuperDre · 2016-03-09 21:30 · Score: 1
  
  Maybe the problem's with the kernel, not the driver.. It's the biggest problem with Linux, with every upgrade it breaks a lot of stuff, still haven't had an upgrade which didn't have me trying to fix some problems..
12. Re:Not completely correct. by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-10 00:03 · Score: 0
  
  I have hd6970 and fan speed has been regulated just fine for years.
13. Re:Not completely correct. by greenfruitsalad · 2016-03-10 02:58 · Score: 1
  
  unlikely, as SMC fan control patches were only added to kernel slightly over a year ago (i think linux 3.22?). before that, the default fan speed on free driver was 40%, and 18% on the fglrx. so on ubuntu 14.04, all i got with the original kernel (3.19) was a loud whoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
14. Re:Not completely correct. by bridgmanAMD · 2016-03-10 04:13 · Score: 1
  
  Actually the default fan speed was set by VBIOS, and differed significantly between boards. Most boards had fan noise reduced drastically when dynamic power management was enabled (years ago for HD69xx). Some boards had higher default fan settings, and the fan control patches were intended to address those.
15. Re:Not completely correct. by yuhong · 2016-03-10 12:22 · Score: 1
  
  Still, I consider freedom to distribute the most interesting one for many reasons. For example, Win10 is only free to Win7 and Win8.1 upgraders. OEMs for example have to pay for it. When I suggested selling Windows to a non-profit foundation, I was referring to that one.
16. Re:Not completely correct. by stoatwblr · 2016-03-11 01:03 · Score: 1
  
  "The other is so hostile to Linux that Linus Torvalds himself gave them the finger and said "fuck you!" to the company."
  Was.
  After that incident, they've opened up a lot.
17. Re:Not completely correct. by iggymanz · 2016-03-12 16:00 · Score: 1
  
  the "four freedoms" have nothing to do with computer code, you spew nonsense like a cult leader. are you a Stallman suckdick?
So.... by The-Ixian · 2016-03-09 09:49 · Score: 4, Insightful

Keep running fglrx until the open source drivers are up-to-snuff.
As long as there is a road map, we should be good.
If they had dropped fglrx and didn't have a plan to replace it then there is a problem.

--
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
1. Re:So.... by Kjella · 2016-03-09 10:24 · Score: 0
  
  As long as there is a road map, we should be good.
  Like
  1. Strip GNU/Ubuntu of proprietary code
  2. ???
  3. YotLD
  I'd give Pinky and the Brain a better chance at taking over the world with their road map... in a rerun.
  
  --
  Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Ubuntu does not equal Linux by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 09:50 · Score: 0

Just switch to a different distro that will provide the proprietary driver and an easy way to install it.
is Ubuntu going to fuck with the kernel again... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 09:56 · Score: 0

like they did with 14.04 LTS.
Reason I'm asking is because installing CUDA on 14.04.x is/was a pain in the ass primarily because of the kernel change midstream.
The summary fails to mention... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 09:58 · Score: 5, Interesting

That Catalyst was old, bloated, and required old versions of X. Also AMD has been dumping a ton of effort into its opensource driver which is now far superior to its catalyst driver and quickly reaching feature parity with the Windows driver.
Yes, AMD cards used to be terrible in linux, but Ive been playing steam games in linux for the past few years with AMD cards with no issue. I used the catalyst driver till AMD deprecated it about a year ago. When i switched to the opensource driver I noticed significantly better performance. AMDs open source driver isnt quite as good as the proprietary nvidia driver, but its gettin damn close (as long as the application isnt using Nvidia GameWorks).
1. Re:The summary fails to mention... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 10:06 · Score: 0
  
  They're not terrible under Linux, they're terrible under every platform.
  AMD doesn't play favourites when it comes to delivering a sub-par experience.
2. Re:The summary fails to mention... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 11:25 · Score: 1
  
  "Ive been playing steam games in linux for the past few years with AMD cards with no issue."
  How ironic that the subject of your post includes "fails to mention".
  You failed to mention that plenty of Linux-supported games on Steam don't even support AMD cards.
  There goes your "no issue".
  Just to give you one example (quoting from the tab 'SteamOS + Linux'):
  "NOTE: AMD and Intel graphics cards are not currently supported by Alien: Isolation. Game requires at least OpenGL 4.3"
3. Re:The summary fails to mention... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 11:32 · Score: 0
  
  Another one, XCOM 2 ("SteamOS + Linux" tab):
  http://store.steampowered.com/app/268500/
  "AMD and Intel GPUs are not supported at time of release."
  Another one, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor ("SteamOS + Linux" tab):
  http://store.steampowered.com/app/241930/
  "AMD and Intel cards are NOT supported. If you wish to play the game using an AMD graphics card, you should update your graphics driver to version Catalyst 15.7 or higher. You should be able to run the game without experiencing stability issues or graphical glitches, but you may still experience poor performance."
4. Re:The summary fails to mention... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 11:39 · Score: 0
  
  Same goes for GRID Autosport.
  From the System Requirements section, for Linux:
  Intel and AMD GPU's are not supported at time of release.
5. Re: The summary fails to mention... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 12:29 · Score: 0
  
  I said:
  "as long as the application isnt using Nvidia GameWorks"
  Most of the games that fail to run in nvidia cards use gameworks as a comparability layer. You make a valid point, but thats nnot the fault of the card, driver, or company. Its.more the fault of the dev/Porter which used proprietary hardware-specific libraries.
6. Re:The summary fails to mention... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 12:31 · Score: 0, Informative
  
  And how is this AMD's or Intel's fault? All it tells us is that the publishers of those games are totally in Nvidia's pocket. Hell they've probably not only bought in wholesale in the Gameshop scam, they are probably getting money from Nvidia to not support AMD.
7. Re:The summary fails to mention... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 14:18 · Score: 0
  
  Since they work fine on AMD cards under windows, are you suggesting that Nvidia is paying game companies to screw over AMD for only a tiny portion or the market?
8. Re:The summary fails to mention... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 23:16 · Score: 0
  
  Another one, XCOM 2 ("SteamOS + Linux" tab):
  http://store.steampowered.com/app/268500/
  "AMD and Intel GPUs are not supported at time of release."
  Another one, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor ("SteamOS + Linux" tab):
  http://store.steampowered.com/app/241930/
  "AMD and Intel cards are NOT supported. If you wish to play the game using an AMD graphics card, you should update your graphics driver to version Catalyst 15.7 or higher. You should be able to run the game without experiencing stability issues or graphical glitches, but you may still experience poor performance."
  At least for XCOM2, "not supported" means you won't receive any support from the developers on any issues you might discover.
  It has nothing to do with whether it actually runs or not.
9. Re:The summary fails to mention... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-10 00:55 · Score: 0
  
  They don't work fine. This is pretty serious.
  Try playing Witcher3 on Windows using Catalyst drivers. Gameplay stutters, cut scenes stutter so bad that by the end of it the audio is finished and the video has only gone halfway through. This is *after* all the arcane INI edits to just get the game to play well enough you can push buttons and see things happen in the first place. I went through this about five months ago and switched to an nVidia card simply because the game is amazeballs. But I feel pretty shitty for having done that.
  Damn GameWorks. You'd think that things would degrade a bit gracefully, like maybe on AMD cards you just can't get the 8x AA and you can live with a few more hard edges. Unfortunately, the game is literally complete poop even at minimal settings on a recent card and drivers. Makes no sense, but that's the way things are with the higher end action/fps released in the past 1-2 years, AMD is getting slaughtered because of it in the gaming market.
Well worth it by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 10:00 · Score: 0

AMD drivers of ANY kind in Linux are half worthless, so I'm glad to see that mess go and at least move toward what will hopefully be a real solution. For all the hype about Linux performance, it still has a pretty lousy track record for gaming.
Since 16.04 is LTS... by John+Allsup · 2016-03-09 10:44 · Score: 1

Since 16.04 is LTS, if they don't drop catalyst, they are committing to supporting an OS with it for a while. Most likely AMDGPU drivers will be good enough well before the LTS release reaches EOL.

--
John_Chalisque
catalyst is deprecated anyway by ihtoit · 2016-03-09 10:51 · Score: 2

it's now in the "legacy" pile. I know this because I recently had to reinstall the driver for my other laptop and had to go to the legacy pile for the catalyst driver, as the new package ("Crimson") didn't work. I sort of half expected this anyway, since Catalyst is over decade old now. What, did you seriously expect AMD to support Catalyst forever??

--
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
Stop being negative! by gukin · 2016-03-09 10:55 · Score: 5, Interesting

Putting a positive spin on things, this change isn't about catalyst being so terrible that Ubuntu won't use it, rather the open source driver has come so very very far.
From an AMD and open source perspective, if you want high performance and open source, you have to use AMD, the radeon guys have done an amazing job of bringing along the open source driver, and considering they're now up to OpenGL 4.1, which is truly impressive. The Nouveau driver doesn't suck, rather there is a lot of reclocking magic the Nouveau guys don't have and nVidia won't give them; hell nVidia just released the signed firmware for the 9xx series a couple of weeks ago.
For most folks, the open source driver is good and stable enough, need more, go catalyst or nVidia. I don't know too many people who are hardcore gamers and insist on open source drivers.
1. Re:Stop being negative! by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 11:16 · Score: 0
  
  I have less trouble watching videos on Radeon than Catalyst. Radeon is great at displaying windows, too.
  Anyone who wants to play games that need that extra 30-100% GPU performance are already not using Linux, or, know how to install Catalyst.
  Soon, i.e. next year, those games that require that powerful GPU are going to be using Vulkan, in a closed source blob driver that interacts with the AMDGPU kernel module.
  AMDGPU will not work on older cards, which will be stuck with Radeon. However, the next gen games aren't going to work very well on those older GPUs anyway.
Open source drivers suck by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 11:15 · Score: 0

Open source never did a good driver, you are better off running proprietary drivers. Even if you don't game a lot, they are much better. But bottom line as a whole none of the Linux drivers are as well supported as Windows. The same can be said for OS X drivers as they are not very good and considered second thoughts from GPU makers. Linux gaming is so handicapped by poor drivers.
1. Re:Open source drivers suck by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 23:30 · Score: 0
  
  Plain, uninformed BS!
  1. noveau and radeon have both come a long way. noveau in particular is rather impressive. Particularly if you still own a first generation Kepler card (my GTX 680 just purrs away).
  2. OS X drivers are far from an afterthought. They're developed by internal teams at NVIDIA and AMD with collaboration by Apple themselves. Apple controls the OpenGL ABI on their platform, which is why you don't see as many changes on other platforms. Though there is actually a NVIDIA web driver that is fairly more recent than the one provided by upstream.
Throwing away the crutches by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 11:52 · Score: 0

It looks like a gamble to see whether actual development happens in the open source driver once the mediocre closed source AMD driver stops being supported.
Lock repo, issue solved. by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 13:27 · Score: 0

Check back in a year.
Long Term Support by drumbold · 2016-03-09 14:54 · Score: 1

This is about what Canonical is prepared to support for the next 5 years. Catalyst is closed source so the support they can offer can only be as good as what AMD is prepared to offer. If AMD have announced that a replacement for it will be released imminently then it follows that AMD themselves probably aren't prepared to support Catalyst on Linux for the long term. Therefore, why should Canonical commit to supporting it in the long term either?
Yeah, who cares about open drivers! by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 16:01 · Score: 0

I like security vulnerabilities! I like it when flash is used to compromise a computer. I like getting malware from code that cannot be audited. I like having my data stolen or held for ransom. Who cares? I just want the obfuscated code and malware to work. Idiots used to know how to fix their own cars, now they leave it just to professionals, the way it should be. Ignorant bliss, please.
1. Re:Yeah, who cares about open drivers! by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 23:38 · Score: 0
  
  Yea. Us professional, paid developers aren't ever auditing code internally.
  It's true. We just happilly churn out 50,000 lines of copy & pasted code a day, which we then hastily insert into the repository, from where its built and directly shipped to the end user. Regardless of issues.
  Don't let any of my peers tell you otherwise! We're all hacks who need to be kept in check and controlled by prickish teenagers in their basements, who know our code so much better than we ourselves do. But only if it's open sourced, because the powers of the ubernerds are lost on reverse engineering or disassembling...
yes, but I think Crimson also relies on fglrx by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 19:11 · Score: 0

Anyways, not a big deal. I wouldn't want to install and 'buntu past 14.4 lts since they got rid of init (and added systemd)
Ubuntufree Gamefree by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-09 22:47 · Score: -1

I`m not using ubuntu, i do not play games. Yupee i`m not affected!
1. Re:Ubuntufree Gamefree by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-10 01:50 · Score: 0
  
  You are affected if you have a slower CPU, for sure. The oss driver is fucking garbage and all of the unimplemented functions are done by your CPU not the GPU.
  Let me say it again. The open source driver for AMD is complete and utter shit and doesn't support about 80% of the hardware functions.
2. Re:Ubuntufree Gamefree by bridgmanAMD · 2016-03-10 04:27 · Score: 1
  
  Just curious, which 80% is that ? The open drivers are currently at GL 4.1 with a lot of the 4.2-4.5 features already implemented. Looking at the list of unsupported extensions very few of them seem to be hardware related - I could agree with maybe a few % of the hardware being supported but not 80%.
  
  https://mesamatrix.net/
  
  The Boltzmann (aka ROC/HSA) stack also uses the open source drivers, and that covers a lot of HW functionality even Windows drivers don't support.
3. Re:Ubuntufree Gamefree by bridgmanAMD · 2016-03-10 04:28 · Score: 1
  
  bleah, no edit function.... previous post should read "I could agree with maybe a few % of the hardware being UNsupported"...
So... by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-10 11:26 · Score: 0

it's GNU Hurd then?
Also by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-10 11:42 · Score: 0

I do so enjoy the pleasant, mature and thoughtful discussion that ensues whenever one of these changes takes place in the Linux world.
PulseAudio, systemd, KDE 3, Gnome 4, Catalyst, Unity, Wayland, Oracle owning OpenOffice. It's like computing's own Peyton Place.
Here's your replacement by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-10 13:59 · Score: 0

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/12/amd-embraces-open-source-to-take-on-nvidias-gameworks/
Finally someone said this loud: AMD driver is SHIT by Anonymous Coward · 2016-03-12 04:54 · Score: 0

Finally someone said this loud: AMD driver is SHIT
When I was saying this, every AMD fanboy bashed me...