I didn't mean for people to argue over this. I don't see anything wrong with the business practices of NVIDIA. I think a 6 month interval is great, as long as they keep supporting their products for a few years. I just meant that SE wrote about their business practices. Sorry for the confusion everyone.
Sharky Extreme has a great review up too, also technical in nature. I read it, and as I recall, it was about 30 pages, pretty in depth.
One of the biggest points is that current x86 cpus are not fast enough to outrun the graphics card in low res. When tested with a 1 GHZ Athlon, and an 866Mhz P3, the graphics card doesnt fare much better in low res than does the original GeForce. It is essentially a barrier for games, created by realease dates:-)
Also of note, the business practices of NVIDIA are scrutinized, such as their 6 month release intervals, which seem to be resulting in their being king of the hill rather freqently.
Supposedly, the ATI Radeon MAXX will be the only thing remotely close to the nv15 (GeForce2 GTS). However, the only thing expected to defeat the GeForce2 (NV15) will be the NV20.
For those of you who haven't had the time to read the reviews, they're going to come out with the NV15 VERY soon. Oh, and the 1 ghz athlon cant keep up with it, as mentioned. At the same time there will be 128MB versions of the original GeForce, geared towards workstations. Soon after, there will be 64mb versions of the GeForce2. Shortly after that, we will see the mobile gforce, NV11, a 3d card for laptops. 6 months from now, nvidia will introduce us to the nv20.
IMO things are shaping up very nicely in the graphics arena. We are not just seeing more frames in our games, but many additional features, thus letting people from hardcore gamers running at 640x480 in low detail, to those that desire 32bit quality and large detail wanting to realize all that our technology can bring us, be satisfied with one card, regardless of the company producing it
This is nice, but the real beauty will be if they disable anonymous access and use this for mirror sites. With 650MB files, 30 users is ideal, except it wont help that many people. Now, if you use this as a central server, you can have mirror sites, all with the same version. Hopefully, some of the less competitive distros out there can take advantage of this, and standardize their distro versions across the web.
BTW - If you decide that you really like a distro, please buy a version of it (especially some of the BSD's), it will help the coders fund their efforts, and help insure a continuous forward progress.
After you finally get an iso, you will spend the next few days hating your connection, and have nightmares of broken connects. You will easily forget about all the time you spent looking for the ftp server with an iso!!!
It's nice to see all of these high powered graphics cards out there, but when will we get some more features in the area of multimedia?
Before I get accused of being off topic, I am talking about a screaming 3d accelerator and some nice connectors on the back, specifically TV-In, both S-Video and RCA. Furthermore, help out the global community with PAL and NTSC formats. Video out is nice too, when hoooking to a VCR, etc, but not as useful.
The voodoo3 3500 was the best concept I've seen yet, but IMO they really botched the implementation, very poor in the OS support, etc. No video in NT or Linux (I run 4 OS on this comp, but still have to keep 98). Audio in RCA left/right, FM tuning, S-Video in/out, RCA video in/out, it would be nice.
ATI has always had the best Desktop Video IMO, and I'll be happy to see a RadeOn with at least RCA video in/out. Hopefully S-Video, but there isnt much S-video stuff out there. Linux support is what I'd like to see the most in the multimedia though.
Only time will tell, but ATI has at least said they will release linux drivers.
BTW - Does anyone know what those ports on the back of the card are for? I've seen them in the test-board photos, but can't find anyone talk about the card, only the chipset.
This is great, "on the bleeding edge" isnt that accurate - it seems to do ok on mine. The speed is great, it feels like a nice improvement over my previous version. Congrats to the XF86 Team and all of the hard work you've put into it. We really appreciate it.
Working in a university has allowed me to observe many different programming systems and standards. With the introduction of namespaces, strings, etc. I've witnessed many professors lose control over software design in their classes, etc. due to new standards. We've been forced to redesign our project submission systems within the department, while different systems seem to require changes, giving less portability, etc. Most every advanced programming class' listserv is ablaze with 20 postings a day or more. When the standards were changed and we began to read C++ 3rd. edition, many of us were stunned to see these changes, especially namespaces, and did not agree with them until months later, once we understood your purposes in creating them. My question is this : Do you feel that recent standards have hurt implementation of the C++ language, or was it a necessary step in the evolution of the programming language?
You say that you are starting up a software company, and there seems to be a lot of debate over what you need. No one startup has figured it all out, regardless of how succesful they are. In my experience, this is what you need to get over most obstacles in the software industry. 1) Know your market. Have a target market from the beginning. I hate to say it, but you must put a good spin on your advertising. Find someone with experience in your chosen market. If you are marketing business apps, for example, You need to keep users happy and the sysadmins happy. Access control, ease of use, cleanliness of design, maximum ease of integration, maximum compatibility, including cross-platform compatibility will prevail here. 2) Know what else is in your market. When you are in the initial deployment phase for your product, you wont have the tech-zine writeups to sell your product, you have to convince people face-to-face. People will ask about every other competing product available. Know the weaknesses and the strenghts of every other product. Chances are you will be talking to a sysadmin. Explain how easy to maintain it is, etc. Talk ma-hours and fte's here. Explain the time savings they will receive. This is especially important when talking to upper level management. 3) Have a well designed business plan. The less experienced and younger you are, your business plan has to be that much more thorough. Have outside, independent accountants review it. Know what you will make, when you will make it, and from who. VC aren't going to listen to "a bunch of ideas that think they know everything." Explain the risks, otherwise you are just insulting their intelligence. Explain the returns, both expected, best and worse case. Not in so many words, but they do want to know what they are getting into. Outside reviews/input look great. 4) Trust. You absolutely must trust the people you start out with in your company. Chances are, you will get only one shot. Make sure that your people function as a team, know their piece of the puzzle, are in it for the long hall, are willing to accept change, and are ready to step aside when needed. Give everyone a specific job, groupwork will not fly in the beginning (committees). If someone bails out on you, it's very, very hard to recover from. Make sure they know what they are getting into. This is a very simple list of suggestions. Always know where your product will fall down, and be prepared. As far as marketing goes, these are most basic things to know : 1) Talking to upper level/execs - Talk in terms of dollars, explain where, why and how in the simplest terms you can. No computer people here. 2) Talking to middle management - Talk in terms of man-hours, fte's, etc. Explain how much they can save in man-hours, where, and why - in business terms. Once again, no computer people here. Deployment, maintenance, and lifespan are necessary facts. No computer people here. 3) User level and IT pro's - Talk in terms of software features - Ease of use, power, etc. They want to know what you can do for them that is not alread being done by your competitor's product. Lotsa computer people here. Basically, know your RPC - risk, people, and customers. Have a leader who will take a proactive step and take an acceptable amount of risk wherever he/she can. Hope this helps you start in the right direction.
I don't know if this really occured to anyone else, but in doing this Redhat can easily show how much good software there is in GPL. Just imagine : You can show this to all those non-believers out there, "look, here is an entire operating system, complete with all kinds of applications, which is very usable and practical, yet it is ALL open and free". Tell me we haven't come a long way:-)
Wow, just what I need, a few more licenses to software I don't want... Micrososft should be able to go out there and hunt down illegal copies of their products. I for one own some copies, as do a lot of people I know. However, I happen to have more licenses than I know what to do with. A friend of mine gave away around 3dozen WinNT Workstation Licenses to anyone who wanted one this summer. In case you don't know, Microsoft gives NT4 Wrokstation away for free every day.
Also, Microsoft tactics are a lot nicer than some other companies. Once you start dealing with software in the $50,000 - $1,000,000 range, those companies will randomly audit their customers. I know of one company that let a few extra people use some software, until one day the manufacturer flew some people out to that company, walked into the building and told the president to immediately show him where every copy of their software was and who was using it. So, I'm thinking Microsoft's approach is a little better.
Now, as for reasons why MS software is pirated, there are still people out there believing that they are striking blows against the establishment. And in all honesty, they are right. Unfortunately, it wont hurt Microsoft one bit to pirate 10,000 copies of Win98, etc. The only way the Linux community will be able to defeat microsoft will be to provide a better product. I already feel that Linux is superior, sooner or later everyone else will too.
It seems to me that music is continually adapting things from decades ago. Perhaps that is why many people today listen to 70's and 90's music, etc. Things that don't seem like they go together. I'm part of that group too. Last things I listened too while coding were Strawberry Alarm Clock, Squarepusher, Eric Clapton, Mu-ziq, Jefferson Airplane, Bogdan Raczynski, and Blue Oyster Cult. Trippy music is great for reading through algorithms, really lets me concentrate. If I'm not in a rush, I'll listen to Miles Davis or something like that. But if I'm up at 4:00 trying to finish some code, something like Boston or Kansas, or fast paced orchestral pieces from Dvorak are the only way to go.
I think it's a great move for Debian, and the open source community. Debian just has to advertise it somewhat. People will recognize Redhat, but few people are going to recognize Debian in a retail outlet unless they are part of the "enlightened" linux community. BSD's have been doing this stuff for years, but only to benefit their own works. Still benefits the open source community, but not everyone. This group is helping out a lot more than just themselves, which hopefully will benefit everyone.:)
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I didn't mean for people to argue over this. I don't see anything wrong with the business practices of NVIDIA. I think a 6 month interval is great, as long as they keep supporting their products for a few years. I just meant that SE wrote about their business practices. Sorry for the confusion everyone.
Sharky Extreme has a great review up too, also technical in nature. I read it, and as I recall, it was about 30 pages, pretty in depth.
One of the biggest points is that current x86 cpus are not fast enough to outrun the graphics card in low res. When tested with a 1 GHZ Athlon, and an 866Mhz P3, the graphics card doesnt fare much better in low res than does the original GeForce. It is essentially a barrier for games, created by realease dates :-)
Also of note, the business practices of NVIDIA are scrutinized, such as their 6 month release intervals, which seem to be resulting in their being king of the hill rather freqently.
Supposedly, the ATI Radeon MAXX will be the only thing remotely close to the nv15 (GeForce2 GTS). However, the only thing expected to defeat the GeForce2 (NV15) will be the NV20.
For those of you who haven't had the time to read the reviews, they're going to come out with the NV15 VERY soon. Oh, and the 1 ghz athlon cant keep up with it, as mentioned. At the same time there will be 128MB versions of the original GeForce, geared towards workstations. Soon after, there will be 64mb versions of the GeForce2. Shortly after that, we will see the mobile gforce, NV11, a 3d card for laptops. 6 months from now, nvidia will introduce us to the nv20.
IMO things are shaping up very nicely in the graphics arena. We are not just seeing more frames in our games, but many additional features, thus letting people from hardcore gamers running at 640x480 in low detail, to those that desire 32bit quality and large detail wanting to realize all that our technology can bring us, be satisfied with one card, regardless of the company producing it
This is nice, but the real beauty will be if they disable anonymous access and use this for mirror sites. With 650MB files, 30 users is ideal, except it wont help that many people. Now, if you use this as a central server, you can have mirror sites, all with the same version. Hopefully, some of the less competitive distros out there can take advantage of this, and standardize their distro versions across the web.
BTW - If you decide that you really like a distro, please buy a version of it (especially some of the BSD's), it will help the coders fund their efforts, and help insure a continuous forward progress.
After you finally get an iso, you will spend the next few days hating your connection, and have nightmares of broken connects. You will easily forget about all the time you spent looking for the ftp server with an iso!!!
It's nice to see all of these high powered graphics cards out there, but when will we get some more features in the area of multimedia?
Before I get accused of being off topic, I am talking about a screaming 3d accelerator and some nice connectors on the back, specifically TV-In, both S-Video and RCA. Furthermore, help out the global community with PAL and NTSC formats. Video out is nice too, when hoooking to a VCR, etc, but not as useful.
The voodoo3 3500 was the best concept I've seen yet, but IMO they really botched the implementation, very poor in the OS support, etc. No video in NT or Linux (I run 4 OS on this comp, but still have to keep 98). Audio in RCA left/right, FM tuning, S-Video in/out, RCA video in/out, it would be nice.
ATI has always had the best Desktop Video IMO, and I'll be happy to see a RadeOn with at least RCA video in/out. Hopefully S-Video, but there isnt much S-video stuff out there. Linux support is what I'd like to see the most in the multimedia though.
Only time will tell, but ATI has at least said they will release linux drivers.
BTW - Does anyone know what those ports on the back of the card are for? I've seen them in the test-board photos, but can't find anyone talk about the card, only the chipset.
This is great, "on the bleeding edge" isnt that accurate - it seems to do ok on mine. The speed is great, it feels like a nice improvement over my previous version. Congrats to the XF86 Team and all of the hard work you've put into it. We really appreciate it.
Working in a university has allowed me to observe many different programming systems and standards. With the introduction of namespaces, strings, etc. I've witnessed many professors lose control over software design in their classes, etc. due to new standards. We've been forced to redesign our project submission systems within the department, while different systems seem to require changes, giving less portability, etc. Most every advanced programming class' listserv is ablaze with 20 postings a day or more. When the standards were changed and we began to read C++ 3rd. edition, many of us were stunned to see these changes, especially namespaces, and did not agree with them until months later, once we understood your purposes in creating them. My question is this : Do you feel that recent standards have hurt implementation of the C++ language, or was it a necessary step in the evolution of the programming language?
You say that you are starting up a software company, and there seems to be a lot of debate over what you need. No one startup has figured it all out, regardless of how succesful they are. In my experience, this is what you need to get over most obstacles in the software industry. 1) Know your market. Have a target market from the beginning. I hate to say it, but you must put a good spin on your advertising. Find someone with experience in your chosen market. If you are marketing business apps, for example, You need to keep users happy and the sysadmins happy. Access control, ease of use, cleanliness of design, maximum ease of integration, maximum compatibility, including cross-platform compatibility will prevail here. 2) Know what else is in your market. When you are in the initial deployment phase for your product, you wont have the tech-zine writeups to sell your product, you have to convince people face-to-face. People will ask about every other competing product available. Know the weaknesses and the strenghts of every other product. Chances are you will be talking to a sysadmin. Explain how easy to maintain it is, etc. Talk ma-hours and fte's here. Explain the time savings they will receive. This is especially important when talking to upper level management. 3) Have a well designed business plan. The less experienced and younger you are, your business plan has to be that much more thorough. Have outside, independent accountants review it. Know what you will make, when you will make it, and from who. VC aren't going to listen to "a bunch of ideas that think they know everything." Explain the risks, otherwise you are just insulting their intelligence. Explain the returns, both expected, best and worse case. Not in so many words, but they do want to know what they are getting into. Outside reviews/input look great. 4) Trust. You absolutely must trust the people you start out with in your company. Chances are, you will get only one shot. Make sure that your people function as a team, know their piece of the puzzle, are in it for the long hall, are willing to accept change, and are ready to step aside when needed. Give everyone a specific job, groupwork will not fly in the beginning (committees). If someone bails out on you, it's very, very hard to recover from. Make sure they know what they are getting into. This is a very simple list of suggestions. Always know where your product will fall down, and be prepared. As far as marketing goes, these are most basic things to know : 1) Talking to upper level/execs - Talk in terms of dollars, explain where, why and how in the simplest terms you can. No computer people here. 2) Talking to middle management - Talk in terms of man-hours, fte's, etc. Explain how much they can save in man-hours, where, and why - in business terms. Once again, no computer people here. Deployment, maintenance, and lifespan are necessary facts. No computer people here. 3) User level and IT pro's - Talk in terms of software features - Ease of use, power, etc. They want to know what you can do for them that is not alread being done by your competitor's product. Lotsa computer people here. Basically, know your RPC - risk, people, and customers. Have a leader who will take a proactive step and take an acceptable amount of risk wherever he/she can. Hope this helps you start in the right direction.
I don't know if this really occured to anyone else, but in doing this Redhat can easily show how much good software there is in GPL. Just imagine : You can show this to all those non-believers out there, "look, here is an entire operating system, complete with all kinds of applications, which is very usable and practical, yet it is ALL open and free". Tell me we haven't come a long way :-)
Wow, just what I need, a few more licenses to software I don't want... Micrososft should be able to go out there and hunt down illegal copies of their products. I for one own some copies, as do a lot of people I know. However, I happen to have more licenses than I know what to do with. A friend of mine gave away around 3dozen WinNT Workstation Licenses to anyone who wanted one this summer. In case you don't know, Microsoft gives NT4 Wrokstation away for free every day.
Also, Microsoft tactics are a lot nicer than some other companies. Once you start dealing with software in the $50,000 - $1,000,000 range, those companies will randomly audit their customers. I know of one company that let a few extra people use some software, until one day the manufacturer flew some people out to that company, walked into the building and told the president to immediately show him where every copy of their software was and who was using it. So, I'm thinking Microsoft's approach is a little better.
Now, as for reasons why MS software is pirated, there are still people out there believing that they are striking blows against the establishment. And in all honesty, they are right. Unfortunately, it wont hurt Microsoft one bit to pirate 10,000 copies of Win98, etc. The only way the Linux community will be able to defeat microsoft will be to provide a better product. I already feel that Linux is superior, sooner or later everyone else will too.
It seems to me that music is continually adapting things from decades ago. Perhaps that is why many people today listen to 70's and 90's music, etc. Things that don't seem like they go together. I'm part of that group too. Last things I listened too while coding were Strawberry Alarm Clock, Squarepusher, Eric Clapton, Mu-ziq, Jefferson Airplane, Bogdan Raczynski, and Blue Oyster Cult. Trippy music is great for reading through algorithms, really lets me concentrate. If I'm not in a rush, I'll listen to Miles Davis or something like that. But if I'm up at 4:00 trying to finish some code, something like Boston or Kansas, or fast paced orchestral pieces from Dvorak are the only way to go.
I think it's a great move for Debian, and the open source community. Debian just has to advertise it somewhat. People will recognize Redhat, but few people are going to recognize Debian in a retail outlet unless they are part of the "enlightened" linux community. BSD's have been doing this stuff for years, but only to benefit their own works. Still benefits the open source community, but not everyone. This group is helping out a lot more than just themselves, which hopefully will benefit everyone. :)