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Display Doctor for Linux - Preview version available
Scitechsoft has released a preview release of their Display Doctor for Linux. It now supports more cards, an SVGAlib wrapper so you can use any card with any resolution and use SVGAlib based applications (Quake, Snes9X etc..), and a universal text mode driver to switch to any text mode you want and your card can support. Evaluation version is now available - worth a shot if I may recommend.
The more potential software has to be good, the more we (slashdot) digs it when it's endangering our freedom.
Commerical software, of all types, can only offer us short term success. Before Scitech came along, graphics card companies would have started to feel pressure to release their specs for xfree. Now they can just get Scitech to sign an NDA and say deal with it.
Supporting Scitech will retard the release of new free video card information. Before we get the massive influx of people using Linux who don't know what a binary is in the next year, we should vote with boycotting this closed core software to further our open software agenda, while our votes mean more because there are fewer who would accept Scitech now than there will ever be.
Companies that come in and want a slice of Linux had better not affect me when they change their standards to make their own distros, modify software, etc. I run a slackware (server), Debian (workstation) network in my house and I don't want to see entire agendas for the operating system development fork, however, if it must, it will be to get away from companies who want a slice of my stability, my wallet and my control so they can make capital on the unsuspecting.
I'm worried. This is an operating system that no one wants to compromise the life of, not Duke Nukem.
For those who don't know, Duke Nukem 3D came packaged on the CD with Scitech Display Doctor shareware. You could play with it for 30 days, then every time you booted up your computer, you had to wait and all the modeX modes were disabled.
Sounds like a compromise for the greatest OS I've ever enjoyed.
I don't like the smell of this thing. I've used the DOS version of this before, back when I still used DOS, but now, I feel differently.
This kind of functionality is much to important to be non-free. I'm afraid that new applications might come out that require something like this. Why write drivers? SciTech will do it for you! Bah!
Avoid this like the plague. Please do not let this become an established product. It could seriously damage the community.
Well, I *thought* this was going to be cool. Some Linux support from a historically DOS/Windows company. I was wrong.
Let's see...I install their program, it hangs up the machine. I had to hit the RESET button! I've *never* had to do that under Linux. To be completely honest, I even had to look for that button on my case...I wasn't even sure I had it connected to the motherboard...
Fine, I start the install again and this time it goes through. I run the config tool and the machine hangs again! Unbelievable! Another liberal use of the RESET button and I'm back in.
By this time, I'm not particularly pleased with this product. The trend continues. I eventually get the stupid thing installed and I start up X. Yup, just like they promised, the behaviour was just like under Windows. I got a wavy screen and resolution support only up to 1024x768. If I wanted more, I was gonna have to edit the config file myself... Where's the benefit again? No thanks.
Plus, when I attempt to switch into full screen mode for VMWare, the f*cking thing hangs again. I decide to pitch this software out the virtual window when I next RESET(!) and reboot. Not so simple...
There is *no* uninstall program *or* instructions. What a piece of crap. So I manually back this thing out, update my own XF86Config file with what little they actually did do right (800x600 and 640x480 was nicer from their config file than mine), and I'm much happier as a result.
I will give them one thing, though. Their page says their product behaves just like the DOS/Windows counterpart. Well, that it does... With all the resets and reboots, I was quickly reminded why I switched from Windows to begin with...
ThomasD