I've used linux a *lot* in the past, and so far the only video cards that absolutely suck are the ones embedded in motherboards. Personally, I like ATI cards, and my personal workstation has a Rage AGP Pro or something of the like. Voodoo based cards are gaining increased support, and 3D acceleration is almost good enough to be respectable in Xfree86 3.3.6, when last I checked. XFree 4.0.1 supports a tremendous amount of hardware, though it's lacking in serious 3D acceleration. It all depends on what you plan on doing with it. What may be the best idea is to try 3.3.6 with 3D acceleration, then 3.3.6, then 4.0.1 and see which one works out best for you once you have selected your video card.
I think that the main problem here is that a teacher screwed up, and nobody except the people who got hurt by this action are willing to let that be said. The teacher is cowardly hiding behind the school's superintendent.
It is my opinion that the teacher (and not just in this one situation but any time a teacher makes a comment that is taken wrong) needs to have the strength to admit that he was wrong. It's obvious that the teacher made a comment that at least one (maybe more) students misinterpreted. And even if it was totally clear that he was not serious, the fact that the software company is not offering any reward is evidence that the teacher misled the students. Because of that, it is the teacher that needs to be reprimanded and the student(s) need to be left alone.
And even if the student did have malicious intent, the *only* thing that was accomplished in the entire exercise was cracking the security software (which, let's be honest, just isn't all that difficult). No data was compromised, nobody was hurt, and the accused student's intentions were very clear.
Finally, let's not kid ourselves here: what kind of "top secret" data is there in a high school??? Scheduling data? Grades? I think people need to get their priorities straight before they go around suspending people.
It's a shame that the military gets all kinds of groovy toys before any of us normal folk get a chance to play with them.... The shameful thing is that the only guaranteed manner of getting funding for any project is to get the military interested in it.
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I've used linux a *lot* in the past, and so far the only video cards that absolutely suck are the ones embedded in motherboards. Personally, I like ATI cards, and my personal workstation has a Rage AGP Pro or something of the like. Voodoo based cards are gaining increased support, and 3D acceleration is almost good enough to be respectable in Xfree86 3.3.6, when last I checked. XFree 4.0.1 supports a tremendous amount of hardware, though it's lacking in serious 3D acceleration. It all depends on what you plan on doing with it. What may be the best idea is to try 3.3.6 with 3D acceleration, then 3.3.6, then 4.0.1 and see which one works out best for you once you have selected your video card.
I think that the main problem here is that a teacher screwed up, and nobody except the people who got hurt by this action are willing to let that be said. The teacher is cowardly hiding behind the school's superintendent. It is my opinion that the teacher (and not just in this one situation but any time a teacher makes a comment that is taken wrong) needs to have the strength to admit that he was wrong. It's obvious that the teacher made a comment that at least one (maybe more) students misinterpreted. And even if it was totally clear that he was not serious, the fact that the software company is not offering any reward is evidence that the teacher misled the students. Because of that, it is the teacher that needs to be reprimanded and the student(s) need to be left alone. And even if the student did have malicious intent, the *only* thing that was accomplished in the entire exercise was cracking the security software (which, let's be honest, just isn't all that difficult). No data was compromised, nobody was hurt, and the accused student's intentions were very clear. Finally, let's not kid ourselves here: what kind of "top secret" data is there in a high school??? Scheduling data? Grades? I think people need to get their priorities straight before they go around suspending people.
It's a shame that the military gets all kinds of groovy toys before any of us normal folk get a chance to play with them.... The shameful thing is that the only guaranteed manner of getting funding for any project is to get the military interested in it.