You already had your non-free driver, it's called frglx. It kind of worked for some cards, but exactely because it's NOT Free, it's never been improved to work on newer kernels, with newer Xorg techniques (compositing, randr, ttm, etc.), or with all kind of cards.
If one day ATI releases another version of their proprietary monster for the card of your choice, you'll have no warranty it'll work the year after. Just because you didn't care.
Nowadays all-terrains wheelchairs can go pretty much anywhere, and seeing how these bipedals walk, I really doubt they could follow. Moreover I don't think they'll have a great battery autonomy.
Basically, TFA says that "ATI has a release cycle". They even have an unofficial bugzilla and an unofficial wiki. Oh, and they'll drop R200 support too. And all that's supposed to make better drivers for Linux one day.
I really wish they'd go the Intel way: hire some top-notch developers, give them specs and make them do Free drivers.
Come here in Europe, and count the number of school shootings (or more generally death by gun). Even if you have a brain washed by the US pro-gun lobby you may understand.
Yeah, existing laws - making it illegal to walk on campus with a gun and shoot 30+ people - really did a lot of good, no? What makes you think passing more laws is going to help?
This one is easy: just look at countries where people don't walk with guns, you'll see no such dramatic event.
Thermal Imagers (aka TI): These are heat-sensitive, and can see through most smokes. [...] Up close, these can see through clothing. Don't ask how I know this.;)
Neat ! Oh and, BTW, how did you happen to know this ?
Having secret police and no accountability goes against the very grain of what the United States stands for, and what the Constitution says. Our forefathers explicitly ensured that we would have the rights necessary to overthrow our government if things got out of hand. The government exists to serve the people, not the other way around.
Maybe (just maybe) your secret polices (FBI & CIA) have just grown out of control and the government has no real responsibilities nor control in what they do. Ok, seeing how G.W.Bush speaks and acts, I seriously doubt he has no part in it, but you should ask yourself if your "police" isn't too independent.
Drivers nowadays are complex and expensive things, and frankly the Linux hobbyist market is tiny. And then they're likely to buy the lowest end card, or not even that as they're busy bitching about how binary drivers are evil.
If that was true, NVIDIA & ATI wouldn't even have written their binary drivers. But they did, and they maintain them, and Intel even wrote an open-source one !
What you're missing is that Linux isn't easily segmented into markets. The "hobbyists" are the ones fixing the bugs for the pro market, and the pro market just wants something working and maintained, so keeping the hobbyists happy is important. The natural tendency towards free drivers is slow, but that will happen.
How about requesting ATI/AMD to take care of the already existing free X11 drivers, by giving informations about newer cards and manpower to develop all features, so that we have something readable (and working), and fixable by the community ?
In addition to U.S. military information, there were hundreds of pages of detailed schematics and project information marked 'Lockheed Martin Proprietary Information -- Export Controlled' that were associated with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.... It was a case of putting the interests of the corporation over those of the country.
To me, it looks like it was only putting the interests of a corporation against the interests of another corporation. But the guy was smart and choose the bigger one.
please remember that Vista has a Video driver model that is different than is used in ANY OTHER OS. It supports things like GPU multi-tasking and system RAM smart-realtime sharing with GPU RAM, as well as the driver is no longer a kernel level driver and runs in User mode
I distinctly remember that the linux opensource nouveau driver has code to support all these features, that the code indicates that the hardware supports this since something like TNT cards, and that if nouveau does it the proprietary linux drivers probably do it since years.
Also the things "brand new" in Vista and "in no other OS" like running your game in a 3D window are sooo 2005 on linux (ever tried beryl or compiz as your window manager ?).
Stalin: Hey guys... I know I've been kind of totalitarian in the past, but... Um... Let's foster some thoughts about that democracy thing we keep hearing about over in the States.
KGB Adivsor: I hear they don't have secret arrests over there...
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You already had your non-free driver, it's called frglx. It kind of worked for some cards, but exactely because it's NOT Free, it's never been improved to work on newer kernels, with newer Xorg techniques (compositing, randr, ttm, etc.), or with all kind of cards.
If one day ATI releases another version of their proprietary monster for the card of your choice, you'll have no warranty it'll work the year after. Just because you didn't care.
OK, here is my guess: by 2008 DX10 shaders run on WinXP. One way or the other.
OSS drivers for Xorg ? No ? Not interested.
Nowadays all-terrains wheelchairs can go pretty much anywhere, and seeing how these bipedals walk, I really doubt they could follow. Moreover I don't think they'll have a great battery autonomy.
Basically, TFA says that "ATI has a release cycle". They even have an unofficial bugzilla and an unofficial wiki. Oh, and they'll drop R200 support too. And all that's supposed to make better drivers for Linux one day. I really wish they'd go the Intel way: hire some top-notch developers, give them specs and make them do Free drivers.
And they still are.
Judging by the number of readkills each year, I'd say they are right after all.
Thanks
I wonder if these cards will be fast enough to run current games. If yes, no doubt they'll be a hit amongst linux gamers.
My Nokia 5500 Sport has it, and it's pretty nice but playing while looking at the screen you're moving isn't that easy.
Come here in Europe, and count the number of school shootings (or more generally death by gun). Even if you have a brain washed by the US pro-gun lobby you may understand.
This one is easy: just look at countries where people don't walk with guns, you'll see no such dramatic event.
Neat ! Oh and, BTW, how did you happen to know this ?
77 for Vista OEM is acceptable. Now, make that not an accident but a regular refund, and explain hos to do it elsewhere than in Germany, and I'm sold.
Oh yes, sorry, it's true you have the "liberal" meaning reversed over there ... I think I just meant the opposite you think I meant with this word.
Maybe (just maybe) your secret polices (FBI & CIA) have just grown out of control and the government has no real responsibilities nor control in what they do. Ok, seeing how G.W.Bush speaks and acts, I seriously doubt he has no part in it, but you should ask yourself if your "police" isn't too independent.
In liberal America, the government (for the people, by the people) controls YOU !
If that was true, NVIDIA & ATI wouldn't even have written their binary drivers. But they did, and they maintain them, and Intel even wrote an open-source one ! What you're missing is that Linux isn't easily segmented into markets. The "hobbyists" are the ones fixing the bugs for the pro market, and the pro market just wants something working and maintained, so keeping the hobbyists happy is important. The natural tendency towards free drivers is slow, but that will happen.
How about requesting ATI/AMD to take care of the already existing free X11 drivers, by giving informations about newer cards and manpower to develop all features, so that we have something readable (and working), and fixable by the community ?
I'm not *that* desperate so as to go straight into alcoholism !
To me, it looks like it was only putting the interests of a corporation against the interests of another corporation. But the guy was smart and choose the bigger one.
I distinctly remember that the linux opensource nouveau driver has code to support all these features, that the code indicates that the hardware supports this since something like TNT cards, and that if nouveau does it the proprietary linux drivers probably do it since years.
Also the things "brand new" in Vista and "in no other OS" like running your game in a 3D window are sooo 2005 on linux (ever tried beryl or compiz as your window manager ?).
More on http://geekz.co.uk/schneierfacts/
KGB Adivsor: I hear they don't have secret arrests over there...
Uh ?!?