1. Chipsets(like always)
2. A Graphics Division
3. A CPU
With this CPU's small die size, I think their is a good chance that via could create a "computer on a chip"... Don't laugh. People have talked about it before. And why not? It would be one of the ultimate solutions for laptops.
A low power chip that provided the cpu, graphics card, and chipset. Such a feat would be impressive, although not unheard of, (I recall reading a patent from years back on this...) Especially for the laptop/low power market. Apple dues something similar in their laptops with the Unified IC(can't remember the real name write now, but its a truly immpressive chip(not on quite the level of integration mentioned above, but close)
I could even see some $200 IPAQ type machines, or perhaps more expensive computers, based of off something like this.
More likely is board-type product than this, but I bet that there could be some "VIA Powered" laptops coming sometime in the future, if VIA plays their cards right.
I think this claim would be perfectly well ment if Windows cost $6.25 a copy. Why $6.25, because that's how much your average movie costs right now.
And guess what, movies have budgets that most software products can only *dream* about. But, Microsoft wants to charge $200 every time you upgrade your computer. If they want to charge you like that, their prices should reflect it.
I don't pirate. But, I find it aggravating that everytime I install WinME, I have to provide a CD Key, and if I lose the case, then tough shit, theirs nothing I can do about, but buy a new copy. If the Motion picture industry can afford to produce a $100,000,000 movie, and release it to the public, at a cost of $6.00 a pup, and then make a massive profit, there is no reason why Microsoft can't do the same thing.
The truth is, that the software industry has a vested interest in doing nothing but screwing the costumer. They've been getting along with it for years, and now want legislation to force consumers into it, for years more.
Here's what software companies want. A world where they take no responsiblity for their product's quality, and can completely control the way it is installed, used, and then force the user to purchase upgrades. Let's face it, if you find a bug in your latest software purchase, there is nothing that you can do about it. You can't return it. You can't dissassmbe it and fix it yourself. You can only wait for an upgrade. And if the company ducks under, tough shit, you'll have to start the same process with another company altogether.
Software users aren't the ones doing the stealing, they're getting robbed blind themselves.
Yes but that driver is still 2d only...
Basic 3d support is still forthcoming. (The 2d driver is pretty sweet though, looks great, nicely accelerated, and supports both XRender and XVideo extensions)
Ok. DRI is also known as "Direct Rendering Infrastructure", it provides a method of access to the graphics hardware which eliminates some of the layers of abstraction in using OpenGL see http://dri.sourceforge.net, for info.
GL/GLU/GLX are all part of a 3D API which allows applications to use graphics hardware. GL provides the core functions, GLU provides extensions, and GLX relates to how the those relate to X.
Utah GLX was an effort to produce hardware accelerated 3d drivers for X a little while back for XFree 3.3.x... There is still work going on it.
Mesa is a "compatible" GL, since they can't legally call it OpenGL. Mesa is the basis for both Utah-GLX and DRI. The methods which the driver works are different though.
SDL is a cross-platform developer library which allows low-level graphics programs to be easily ported. (It also does sound, input, and timers.)
XVideo is an extension to X to allow mpeg/video accelerations, and tv tuner support, and a few other things.
The list of the features in the new render extension can be seen on the main page, but the biggie is the alpha-channel support. Most programs will not take advantage of it immediatly, but in time I think we'll see some nice things come from it.
ATI is providing specs and paying VA Research(I believe) to develop open source drivers. NVidia has decided to keep their drivers closed source.
However, there is a GeForce2 driver in the release, but the acceleration is little, due to the simple fact that their are not specs for an opensource GeForce2 driver. (IE: the people that developed the closed source GeForce driver, can't talk about it...) Also note, that the Radeon driver does not yet provide 3d DRI support, and that is forth coming.
Three cheers to the DRI and XFree86 guys for their continued hard work, which trully shows in this product. Please let the mirrors update, though.
I believe that's the major reason why they are doing this - to help keep the "stable" tree in date, such that the distro never gets as far behind as it does in the past.
If you like debian, but want to stay with the times, you could also try something like Storm Linux which is based on Debian, but uses newer snap shot releases.
(Just a Storm/Debian user singing some praises). Good luck Debian team, and keep up those nice releases!
I've been employed as a business programmer for a while, and I have yet to use C++ to do any real work. Only C, and Visual Basic. (And don't tell me Visual Basic is OO, or at least really OO.)
OO is only the latest of many programming crazes to come and go. And sadly, I feel that most of the people advocating OO programming, don't understand: A. what it should be used for, and B. the draw backs doing things in certain ways have. Such things lead to operators defined in strange and unusual ways, and a strange mix of Object oriented code, and structured code, mix and matched in no specific order. Ever try managing someone's C++ code after they've left? You might as well start over from scratch. Ever try re using a class in one project for another? I guarentee you, it won't work well.
C++ and Java lead to one thing in the hand of a novice, untrained programmer: bad code, and bad programming practice. I would argue that people should learn code in this order: procedural, structured, and then object oriented. Not the other way around.
CompSci AP is the biggest piece of trash to ever grace the AP program. Period.
Actually, it does currently focus on C++, and object orientation. But it just started, in 1999(i believe), before that the tests were in Pascal. To be fair, I don't think that the College Board is responsible for the trash that is known as High School CS, but instead the fault lies on the teachers.
A couple years ago, I took High School CS. The AP test is actually pretty good, but it is not taught well at all. Example: my high school CS book would switch code midstream from C++ to Pascal. Seriously. I would see a code sample like this.
void main() {
int i;
i:= 3;
writeln(i);
}
The test, while covering C++, only focused on the structured aspects of C++(roots in C), no advanced topics are trully covered. Big-O analysis, some other misc bs, the AB test is a bit better, but not by much. Remember, it is a high school test... I find it interesting that the college board has gone from the known to the trendy(PASCAL to C++ to Java).
I have yet to meet a good CS teacher in highschool. Schools simply can't retain them long enough to develop a good curriculum. (Paying qualified people only $35,000 a year, when companies in my area are offering in excess of $60,000-$100,000, doesn't go to far.)
(This is just a rant from someone pissed at wasting 2 high school courses, that could have better been spent with Creative Writing.)
The Radeon is to the R128 as the R128 is to the Mach64...ATI has shown that their windows drivers can hold their cards back with the R128. (10fps increase in Linux Q3) I think Radeon will prove to be the same, when and IF the drivers are released.
A Radeon 32mb DDR can be had for $150, 64mb ddr $300. Drivers will be open source, the card is comparable, if not better than, a GeForce, but sadly the drivers have not yet been released.
So, in reality we have:
ATI at 25% right now
NVIDIA at 15% right now
3dfx at 5% right now
After the sale, NVIDIA will have 20%, ATI 25%... Still a sizeable lead. And as was noted before, NVIDIA isn't really buying 3dfx, they are just getting their chips, which means that NVIDIA will NOT get all of 3dfx sales. These numbers just show, and still, that this will put NVIDIA much closer ATI than the were before.
There may be a reason why this sale will not go through, but I'm still hoping(shareholders can say no...). 3dfx and Nvidia together completely lead the retail market. (Not OEM/laptop sails here, retail.) Now with 3dfx being consumed this leaves us with Nvidia. Now here is the kicker:
ATI Market Share (Currently) 26%
Nvidia market share (currently) 20%
3dfx market share(currently) 7%
These numbers may be a bit old or off. But, with nvidia + 3dfx you get a new market break down where(through simple addition), 3dfx/nvidia will have a lead.
Now that leaves ATI in a bit of a bad spot, and I *really* doubt that 3dfx is going to release anything with open source drivers now. Which leaves only 1 company(ATI) with a good, open source gaming board which can be easily obtained in the retail market.
Mandrake comes with a seriously non standard, patched kernel. (They are actually more than likely using fairly recent emu10k1 drivers, which were probably from opensource.creative.com), they also more than likely patched for usb support and other such little things.
You need to get the stock kernel to run it right. 2.2.18 will make a good update for many because:
it's a stock kernel, and all of these back ported features will elieviate the need for umpteen gillion patches.
On what do you base your claim? If its biblical then you should know that methusula lived to be 900+. But, according to modern history, a person whom just died recently lived to be 122. And I believe there was a man in Japan that lived to be 127.
Its not possible for a company or person to sue the United States government itself. Its called soverign immunity.
In order to get money from the federal government, there is a court system and such to take some of the burden off of congress, which then goes to congress. (Or you can just contact your local representitive.) Point being: the federal government doesn't have to give you jack. Generally they do if there is good cause, and this is done through a private bill that the congress after you make known your grevience, generally as part of their weekly(?) house cleanup bill that they pass.
Re:Programmers Make Computers Slower Year by Year
on
Netscape 6 Vs. 4.7x
·
· Score: 1
The kind of programmers who write horribly obfuscated, but supposedly very tight code are usually ignoring better algorithms, the compiler's optimizer, or both. I, personally, would not let one of them be a part of an organization where I had some control who was working there.
This is exactly the type of thing I'm refering to. Good programmers who know what they are doing, versus the hax0r type from the local highschool or college(although there are some REALLY good highschool and college programmers out there), that have know what they are doing. As I said earlier: good engineering principles have left the world of software in many programmer's minds. And I don't mean to insult the rest of the programmer's out there on slashdot, I'm simply stating that the industry is on a downward slide.
Re:Programmers Make Computers Slower Year by Year
on
Netscape 6 Vs. 4.7x
·
· Score: 2
I actually do a large amount of development, all of it is inhouse stuff that no one will ever see outside the company, but I do program. And I've experienced deadlines breathing down my own throught.
My point was not against Microsoft or Netscape, its a general trend that I see in the software industry that concerns me: the complete lack of disregard for good design. This doesn't necesarily mean performance. "Ram is cheap" - is only one particular, and well spread symptom of this. And your right, performance is a feature. But a good design, will include the consideration of performance. Many leave it to the hardware now.
A good design will save you much time, compared to the typical high school hax0r who feels he can do anything on the fly without any planning, and again any elementary book or engineering course material will tell you that. I'm refering to programmers who have no understanding of what happens behind the scenes and use the tools with a complete disregard for how it will really affect the entire system in stability, performance, features, you name it.
"Schedules are killing us" is no excuse for the disregard of engineering principles being shown in a great percentage of the software industry, if any thing, it should be more a reason for them.
Re:Programmers Make Computers Slower Year by Year
on
Netscape 6 Vs. 4.7x
·
· Score: 5
More features? Or bad programming combined with bad languages?
Years ago the WordPerfect for Windows 5.1 was released. A WYSIWYG word processer that ran with 8 mb ram, and about 40 meg hard drive space. The fact is: there is no reason that WinME should take 550 Meg alone on my hard drive.
I'll grant you that features creep in, and users demand more and more and more features. But, newer programming classes fail to teach students some very basic important things. And what I speak of, is the often repeated line, that I've heard spoken in the classroom, and by a great many professional programmers, "RAM is cheap."
Coding is taking less and less effort, not more. Any fool with a copy of Visual Basic or Visual C++, can create a passible text editor. Compare this to the days of hand optimized assembly, where one must stretch the processor beyond its current capabilies, getting every ounce of RAM out as possible. Intelligent, well thought out designs, were the only way you could create a solution that would run well.
Now, Linux is one of the few enviroments where talented programmers have joined together to create something nice. In terms of requirements, the Linux world is moving at a much slower pace than most other industries. It is actually possible to runt the latest version of slack on a 486DX4-100 with 24 mb of ram, use an older version of netscape(or mozilla), and have things feel a bit slow, but the system be usable. This was the configuration of my Compaq laptop, which I used until I sold a week ago.:P
But their is much software where, the often repeated statement, "RAM is cheap", pops up. Even in Linux. I find the whole situation disgusting myself. One should not justify not thinking fully through a program with this qualification. Clever algorithems, thoughtfull code, and interesting tricks are no longer allowed. Coding has begun to become something for the braindead. And the sad thing is, that many corporations will hire these pimple faced teen VB programmers that have no knowledge of algorithem analysis, and have little to know experience writing anything else than yet another Visual Basic Calculator.
Anyway, are you sure that this problem relates to what type of partition. If you do an install of BSD, and then set it up to use full disk support, the DOS partition might doesn't even have to be their.
I've done this before and had severe problems with the BIOS not wanting to recognize the partitions. And since its not uncommon laptop BIOS's look at the hd for setup programs in a seperate partition, maybe thats the whole problem.
In order to be a bit on topic, I think that
RedHat 7.0 is really similar to the technology
preview linux release from Caldera, something
that is BETA, but is a good indicator of what
future distributions will have in them.
Yes, but the question is at what point do human limitations start to take effect. The point is, that at 32bpp it is difficult, or arguably impossible, to begin to tell the difference between various shades of colors.
The REAL problem is resolution. In order to drive this thing, your going to need something a lot higher than 2048x1024. Which starts getting into bandwidth problems, which leads to compression issues, which leads to compression artifacts.
TI has been advertising their DLP system for a while. These chips currently have a max of 1280x1024(if I remember correctly), and their what most theaters around here are using. I believe higher resolution version are being worked on, and other firms have their own competing technologies.
I expect in the next few years, the equipment will be their to do extremely high res projections, and this sort of thing will begin to be the standard.
Re:it doesn't matter how great of card it is..
on
Nvidia's NV20
·
· Score: 1
(The Radeon drivers are not completly OSS, just the rasterization parts are)
Sorry, but this is incorrect. The specs have been released to VA Research, who has not yet finished the DRI driver. The specs were also released to Xig who released a proprietary X driver. When the DRI driver is released, it will become part of XFree 4. The rasterization parts are already in their. If you want 3d support now, you have to get Xig drivers.
Now the Radeon 64Mb Xig drivers(Alpha 2.0) are actually FASTER than some of Nvidias drivers w/ some of their faster cards. So the statement that NVidia has the fastest GL drivers currently is also incorrect. And I suspect that the next release of the V5 drivers(which BTW does support SLI and FSAA) will also be comparable to NVidias drivers. The DRI drivers are doing on hellofa job, and they all deserve our respect. And the fact is, that the open source developer DON'T NEED nvidias pipeline, the curent DRI/GLX stuff does it just fine.
Re:why such a fast RAMDAC?
on
Nvidia's NV20
·
· Score: 2
To clarify exactly what a RAMDAC is for the few posters that do not seem to understand:
A RAMDAC has nothing to do in reality with 3d acelleration. Instead, the RAMDAC relates to converting from graphic's card's display memory to Analog signals on the monitor. Hence where RAMDAC comes from: Random Access Memory Digital to Analog Converter. A fast RAMDAC can support very high refresh rates. Now a 500Mhz RAMDAC will probably become necessary with high definition TV's which have a resolution a bit higher than 1600x1200, at a decent refresh rate. But as an above poster pointed out, it is likely a mistake in the article.
Slashdot Mirror
1. Chipsets(like always)
2. A Graphics Division
3. A CPU
With this CPU's small die size, I think their is a good chance that via could create a "computer on a chip"... Don't laugh. People have talked about it before. And why not? It would be one of the ultimate solutions for laptops.
A low power chip that provided the cpu, graphics card, and chipset. Such a feat would be impressive, although not unheard of, (I recall reading a patent from years back on this...) Especially for the laptop/low power market. Apple dues something similar in their laptops with the Unified IC(can't remember the real name write now, but its a truly immpressive chip(not on quite the level of integration mentioned above, but close)
I could even see some $200 IPAQ type machines, or perhaps more expensive computers, based of off something like this.
More likely is board-type product than this, but I bet that there could be some "VIA Powered" laptops coming sometime in the future, if VIA plays their cards right.
And guess what, movies have budgets that most software products can only *dream* about. But, Microsoft wants to charge $200 every time you upgrade your computer. If they want to charge you like that, their prices should reflect it.
I don't pirate. But, I find it aggravating that everytime I install WinME, I have to provide a CD Key, and if I lose the case, then tough shit, theirs nothing I can do about, but buy a new copy. If the Motion picture industry can afford to produce a $100,000,000 movie, and release it to the public, at a cost of $6.00 a pup, and then make a massive profit, there is no reason why Microsoft can't do the same thing.
The truth is, that the software industry has a vested interest in doing nothing but screwing the costumer. They've been getting along with it for years, and now want legislation to force consumers into it, for years more.
Here's what software companies want. A world where they take no responsiblity for their product's quality, and can completely control the way it is installed, used, and then force the user to purchase upgrades. Let's face it, if you find a bug in your latest software purchase, there is nothing that you can do about it. You can't return it. You can't dissassmbe it and fix it yourself. You can only wait for an upgrade. And if the company ducks under, tough shit, you'll have to start the same process with another company altogether.
Software users aren't the ones doing the stealing, they're getting robbed blind themselves.
Yes but that driver is still 2d only... Basic 3d support is still forthcoming. (The 2d driver is pretty sweet though, looks great, nicely accelerated, and supports both XRender and XVideo extensions)
Rolls up sleeves...
Ok. DRI is also known as "Direct Rendering Infrastructure", it provides a method of access to the graphics hardware which eliminates some of the layers of abstraction in using OpenGL see http://dri.sourceforge.net, for info.
GL/GLU/GLX are all part of a 3D API which allows applications to use graphics hardware. GL provides the core functions, GLU provides extensions, and GLX relates to how the those relate to X.
Utah GLX was an effort to produce hardware accelerated 3d drivers for X a little while back for XFree 3.3.x... There is still work going on it.
Mesa is a "compatible" GL, since they can't legally call it OpenGL. Mesa is the basis for both Utah-GLX and DRI. The methods which the driver works are different though.
SDL is a cross-platform developer library which allows low-level graphics programs to be easily ported. (It also does sound, input, and timers.)
XVideo is an extension to X to allow mpeg/video accelerations, and tv tuner support, and a few other things.
The list of the features in the new render extension can be seen on the main page, but the biggie is the alpha-channel support. Most programs will not take advantage of it immediatly, but in time I think we'll see some nice things come from it.
However, there is a GeForce2 driver in the release, but the acceleration is little, due to the simple fact that their are not specs for an opensource GeForce2 driver. (IE: the people that developed the closed source GeForce driver, can't talk about it...) Also note, that the Radeon driver does not yet provide 3d DRI support, and that is forth coming.
Three cheers to the DRI and XFree86 guys for their continued hard work, which trully shows in this product. Please let the mirrors update, though.
Happy downloading.
If you like debian, but want to stay with the times, you could also try something like Storm Linux which is based on Debian, but uses newer snap shot releases.
(Just a Storm/Debian user singing some praises). Good luck Debian team, and keep up those nice releases!
I've been employed as a business programmer for a while, and I have yet to use C++ to do any real work. Only C, and Visual Basic. (And don't tell me Visual Basic is OO, or at least really OO.)
OO is only the latest of many programming crazes to come and go. And sadly, I feel that most of the people advocating OO programming, don't understand: A. what it should be used for, and B. the draw backs doing things in certain ways have. Such things lead to operators defined in strange and unusual ways, and a strange mix of Object oriented code, and structured code, mix and matched in no specific order. Ever try managing someone's C++ code after they've left? You might as well start over from scratch. Ever try re using a class in one project for another? I guarentee you, it won't work well.
C++ and Java lead to one thing in the hand of a novice, untrained programmer: bad code, and bad programming practice. I would argue that people should learn code in this order: procedural, structured, and then object oriented. Not the other way around.
Actually, it does currently focus on C++, and object orientation. But it just started, in 1999(i believe), before that the tests were in Pascal. To be fair, I don't think that the College Board is responsible for the trash that is known as High School CS, but instead the fault lies on the teachers.
A couple years ago, I took High School CS. The AP test is actually pretty good, but it is not taught well at all. Example: my high school CS book would switch code midstream from C++ to Pascal. Seriously. I would see a code sample like this.
void main() { := 3;
writeln(i);
}
int i;
i
The test, while covering C++, only focused on the structured aspects of C++(roots in C), no advanced topics are trully covered. Big-O analysis, some other misc bs, the AB test is a bit better, but not by much. Remember, it is a high school test... I find it interesting that the college board has gone from the known to the trendy(PASCAL to C++ to Java).
I have yet to meet a good CS teacher in highschool. Schools simply can't retain them long enough to develop a good curriculum. (Paying qualified people only $35,000 a year, when companies in my area are offering in excess of $60,000-$100,000, doesn't go to far.)
(This is just a rant from someone pissed at wasting 2 high school courses, that could have better been spent with Creative Writing.)
A Radeon 32mb DDR can be had for $150, 64mb ddr $300. Drivers will be open source, the card is comparable, if not better than, a GeForce, but sadly the drivers have not yet been released.
http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/00q4/001129/ky ro-01.html
So, in reality we have:
ATI at 25% right now
NVIDIA at 15% right now
3dfx at 5% right now
After the sale, NVIDIA will have 20%, ATI 25%... Still a sizeable lead. And as was noted before, NVIDIA isn't really buying 3dfx, they are just getting their chips, which means that NVIDIA will NOT get all of 3dfx sales. These numbers just show, and still, that this will put NVIDIA much closer ATI than the were before.
There may be a reason why this sale will not go through, but I'm still hoping(shareholders can say no...). 3dfx and Nvidia together completely lead the retail market. (Not OEM/laptop sails here, retail.) Now with 3dfx being consumed this leaves us with Nvidia. Now here is the kicker: ATI Market Share (Currently) 26% Nvidia market share (currently) 20% 3dfx market share(currently) 7% These numbers may be a bit old or off. But, with nvidia + 3dfx you get a new market break down where(through simple addition), 3dfx/nvidia will have a lead. Now that leaves ATI in a bit of a bad spot, and I *really* doubt that 3dfx is going to release anything with open source drivers now. Which leaves only 1 company(ATI) with a good, open source gaming board which can be easily obtained in the retail market.
The world's first email set the tone for the rest. It was the world's email first typo, and we yet to recover. (Some more than others: see rasterman.)
You need to get the stock kernel to run it right. 2.2.18 will make a good update for many because: it's a stock kernel, and all of these back ported features will elieviate the need for umpteen gillion patches.
Microsoft .NET has beta products ready for download, including a copy of the C# development kits. Most of this stuff is going to be here within a year.
On what do you base your claim? If its biblical then you should know that methusula lived to be 900+. But, according to modern history, a person whom just died recently lived to be 122. And I believe there was a man in Japan that lived to be 127.
Heres some proof, if you want it.
http://detnews.com/1997/obits/9708/04/08040139.htm
Actually, French is currently the second most spoken language in the world, and is far from dead.
In order to get money from the federal government, there is a court system and such to take some of the burden off of congress, which then goes to congress. (Or you can just contact your local representitive.) Point being: the federal government doesn't have to give you jack. Generally they do if there is good cause, and this is done through a private bill that the congress after you make known your grevience, generally as part of their weekly(?) house cleanup bill that they pass.
This is exactly the type of thing I'm refering to. Good programmers who know what they are doing, versus the hax0r type from the local highschool or college(although there are some REALLY good highschool and college programmers out there), that have know what they are doing. As I said earlier: good engineering principles have left the world of software in many programmer's minds. And I don't mean to insult the rest of the programmer's out there on slashdot, I'm simply stating that the industry is on a downward slide.
My point was not against Microsoft or Netscape, its a general trend that I see in the software industry that concerns me: the complete lack of disregard for good design. This doesn't necesarily mean performance. "Ram is cheap" - is only one particular, and well spread symptom of this. And your right, performance is a feature. But a good design, will include the consideration of performance. Many leave it to the hardware now.
A good design will save you much time, compared to the typical high school hax0r who feels he can do anything on the fly without any planning, and again any elementary book or engineering course material will tell you that. I'm refering to programmers who have no understanding of what happens behind the scenes and use the tools with a complete disregard for how it will really affect the entire system in stability, performance, features, you name it.
"Schedules are killing us" is no excuse for the disregard of engineering principles being shown in a great percentage of the software industry, if any thing, it should be more a reason for them.
Years ago the WordPerfect for Windows 5.1 was released. A WYSIWYG word processer that ran with 8 mb ram, and about 40 meg hard drive space. The fact is: there is no reason that WinME should take 550 Meg alone on my hard drive.
I'll grant you that features creep in, and users demand more and more and more features. But, newer programming classes fail to teach students some very basic important things. And what I speak of, is the often repeated line, that I've heard spoken in the classroom, and by a great many professional programmers, "RAM is cheap."
Coding is taking less and less effort, not more. Any fool with a copy of Visual Basic or Visual C++, can create a passible text editor. Compare this to the days of hand optimized assembly, where one must stretch the processor beyond its current capabilies, getting every ounce of RAM out as possible. Intelligent, well thought out designs, were the only way you could create a solution that would run well.
Now, Linux is one of the few enviroments where talented programmers have joined together to create something nice. In terms of requirements, the Linux world is moving at a much slower pace than most other industries. It is actually possible to runt the latest version of slack on a 486DX4-100 with 24 mb of ram, use an older version of netscape(or mozilla), and have things feel a bit slow, but the system be usable. This was the configuration of my Compaq laptop, which I used until I sold a week ago. :P
But their is much software where, the often repeated statement, "RAM is cheap", pops up. Even in Linux. I find the whole situation disgusting myself. One should not justify not thinking fully through a program with this qualification. Clever algorithems, thoughtfull code, and interesting tricks are no longer allowed. Coding has begun to become something for the braindead. And the sad thing is, that many corporations will hire these pimple faced teen VB programmers that have no knowledge of algorithem analysis, and have little to know experience writing anything else than yet another Visual Basic Calculator.
Anyway, are you sure that this problem relates to what type of partition. If you do an install of BSD, and then set it up to use full disk support, the DOS partition might doesn't even have to be their.
I've done this before and had severe problems with the BIOS not wanting to recognize the partitions. And since its not uncommon laptop BIOS's look at the hd for setup programs in a seperate partition, maybe thats the whole problem.
In order to be a bit on topic, I think that RedHat 7.0 is really similar to the technology preview linux release from Caldera, something that is BETA, but is a good indicator of what future distributions will have in them.
The REAL problem is resolution. In order to drive this thing, your going to need something a lot higher than 2048x1024. Which starts getting into bandwidth problems, which leads to compression issues, which leads to compression artifacts.
TI has been advertising their DLP system for a while. These chips currently have a max of 1280x1024(if I remember correctly), and their what most theaters around here are using. I believe higher resolution version are being worked on, and other firms have their own competing technologies. I expect in the next few years, the equipment will be their to do extremely high res projections, and this sort of thing will begin to be the standard.
Sorry, but this is incorrect. The specs have been released to VA Research, who has not yet finished the DRI driver. The specs were also released to Xig who released a proprietary X driver. When the DRI driver is released, it will become part of XFree 4. The rasterization parts are already in their. If you want 3d support now, you have to get Xig drivers.
Now the Radeon 64Mb Xig drivers(Alpha 2.0) are actually FASTER than some of Nvidias drivers w/ some of their faster cards. So the statement that NVidia has the fastest GL drivers currently is also incorrect. And I suspect that the next release of the V5 drivers(which BTW does support SLI and FSAA) will also be comparable to NVidias drivers. The DRI drivers are doing on hellofa job, and they all deserve our respect. And the fact is, that the open source developer DON'T NEED nvidias pipeline, the curent DRI/GLX stuff does it just fine.
A RAMDAC has nothing to do in reality with 3d acelleration. Instead, the RAMDAC relates to converting from graphic's card's display memory to Analog signals on the monitor. Hence where RAMDAC comes from: Random Access Memory Digital to Analog Converter. A fast RAMDAC can support very high refresh rates. Now a 500Mhz RAMDAC will probably become necessary with high definition TV's which have a resolution a bit higher than 1600x1200, at a decent refresh rate. But as an above poster pointed out, it is likely a mistake in the article.