I must say I also agree - I have an ATI AiW 128 Pro which i paid a good $170 for (yeah, I got ripped off, but I digress). Under Windows it was... OK. I never played games on it however. Under Linux, with the drivers from the GATOS project, I had nothing but problems with it when trying to use any of the high-speed features it offered. Constant system lockups (or hosed consoles), poor quality video input, no TV out, etc. I know the GATOS guys are working constantly on their drivers, so I blame the poor quality on ATI's refusal to release full specs for their card so that those coders could actually make the card work as advertised. Mind you, my information on ATI's current support is out of date, and I haven't checked on the status of the GATOS drivers in a couple of months, but nevertheless the problem remains.
I too had problems with Windows drivers being unstable in some instances, and the update that was available after I bought my card was less than spectactular.
Of course Windows being the problem that it is by it's very nature, I don't actually use it (had it for a while in a dual-boot setup, with Linux on the other side).. I have since switched to an nVidia card also, an older TNT2 which was given to me by a friend when he got a GeForce2. I shit you not, this TNT2 card is about 3 times faster on my 550 MHz Athlon than that AiW 128 Pro was. And, it doesn't crash the system. This is with Slackware 8 and the 2.4.18 kernel.
So my message to ATI: Sorry guys, you've completely and permanently lost my business. You claimed full Linux support on your web pages, then failed to provide it to those who actually needed it (the driver coders, i.e. the GATOS projects). False advertising, if that term applies here, does not set well with me at all.
I have to say that as a listener of not-quite-so-mainstream music, I support the idea of a coalition for independent musicians. The majority of the music I listen to on a regular is either independent musicians (stuff from remix.kwed.org), or music by artists who have long since died (i.e. classical). On this same note, I've got several songs in my collection from artists I've never heard of prior to file sharing.
The file I'm listening to right now as I write this is none other than the tune from the infamous Bubble Bobble, as performed by a high-school band/orchestra.
Life was simpler before RIAA and DMCA and CARP (CRAP? Yes I read it that way the first time as well) and all these other four-letter acronyms. I don't even KNOW what CARP means, I haven't kept track of all these laws and changes lately, except it's yet another way to keep me from hearing music via whatever method works best for me at any given time.
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I must say I also agree - I have an ATI AiW 128 Pro which i paid a good $170 for (yeah, I got ripped off, but I digress). Under Windows it was... OK. I never played games on it however. Under Linux, with the drivers from the GATOS project, I had nothing but problems with it when trying to use any of the high-speed features it offered. Constant system lockups (or hosed consoles), poor quality video input, no TV out, etc. I know the GATOS guys are working constantly on their drivers, so I blame the poor quality on ATI's refusal to release full specs for their card so that those coders could actually make the card work as advertised. Mind you, my information on ATI's current support is out of date, and I haven't checked on the status of the GATOS drivers in a couple of months, but nevertheless the problem remains.
I too had problems with Windows drivers being unstable in some instances, and the update that was available after I bought my card was less than spectactular.
Of course Windows being the problem that it is by it's very nature, I don't actually use it (had it for a while in a dual-boot setup, with Linux on the other side).. I have since switched to an nVidia card also, an older TNT2 which was given to me by a friend when he got a GeForce2. I shit you not, this TNT2 card is about 3 times faster on my 550 MHz Athlon than that AiW 128 Pro was. And, it doesn't crash the system. This is with Slackware 8 and the 2.4.18 kernel.
So my message to ATI: Sorry guys, you've completely and permanently lost my business. You claimed full Linux support on your web pages, then failed to provide it to those who actually needed it (the driver coders, i.e. the GATOS projects). False advertising, if that term applies here, does not set well with me at all.
I have to say that as a listener of not-quite-so-mainstream music, I support the idea of a coalition for independent musicians. The majority of the music I listen to on a regular is either independent musicians (stuff from remix.kwed.org), or music by artists who have long since died (i.e. classical). On this same note, I've got several songs in my collection from artists I've never heard of prior to file sharing.
The file I'm listening to right now as I write this is none other than the tune from the infamous Bubble Bobble, as performed by a high-school band/orchestra.
Life was simpler before RIAA and DMCA and CARP (CRAP? Yes I read it that way the first time as well) and all these other four-letter acronyms. I don't even KNOW what CARP means, I haven't kept track of all these laws and changes lately, except it's yet another way to keep me from hearing music via whatever method works best for me at any given time.