Another Week, Another New NVIDIA Linux Driver

[krazy]

Why? It is an objective assessment of the situation.

Because of this?
http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines

[tball]

If this will happen next year, you would choose ATI now or anytime rather than next year?

I would choose it now and I would choose it next year. I think fglrx is an okay driver for me. Performance is great in Quake-wars and other opengl games with the new 9.4 driver.

[MaestroMaus]

Because of this?
http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines

Ah I see your point. However, even the guys at Debian will acknowledge that there isn't a valid alternative for people with NVIDIA cards:
The official howto install free/non free drivers on Debian

I'm sure they would like to do this different. A.T.M. they simply can't.

[kernelOfTruth]

I would anytime choose Ati. I think they have better and faster opengl performance with fglrx than with nvidia, and their latest release 9.4 kicks ass. I have had both vendors and I don't dislike nvidia. I think their driver is awesome and right now have more features than fglrx. BUT I would still choose Ati. Why?

Because with Ati I will within a year or so have good performance open source driver with my hd3650. I will have galium3d, kms and I can be sure my card always is supported with the latest X technologies. How can I know the development is heading that way so quick?

Because right now I am on Kubuntu Jaunty with super fast 2d acceleration and truly tearfree video with xv. And yes I can run hd movies without a lag WITH OSS drivers :P Taken the short time they ahve had since the docs have been released for r600, I am not at all nervous for it will be long before I will have 3d support. When basic 3D support is done, they will start on powermanagement and galium3d. Then we will see performance.

Thats why I would never spend any money on nvidia. Because I will get awsome oss drivers. And yes my 2D performance is way better than with my nvidia 7600 GT. And they haven't even optimised the 2d part of the driver yet.

awesome drivers ?

ROFL, get serious

some of us have work to do and need a proper openGL implementation with ALL features, a driver that's stable and doesn't produce a black screen as soon as I need to switch to a VT and/or lock up the system pretty easily

I for one have pulled out my 4850 and put back in my old 7600 which is way superior in support of new kernels, preemptive kernels (preemptive rcu, preemptive kernel anyone?), stability and functionality

see you next year or after another 5 years

[jonnycat26]

ATI just doesn't cut it.

I was a longtime NVidia user who was seduced into going the ATI route for my new card. Seduced by all of those wonderful stories on Phoronix which go on about how the gap has closed, and everything is just about wonderful.

Those stories are lies, pure and simple.

I don't begrudge the ATI developers, who I think are doing the best that they can with (I assume) limited resources. But the ATI drivers are just not ready for prime time.

I want my Linux desktop to do modern desktopy things. That means composite graphics with OpenGL applications and XV Video. Yeah, I'm just as demanding as the Windows and Mac users out there, and I see no reason why I shouldn't be.

I can happily use ATI on a development box, but that's not the point of this post. The point is that right now, only the NVidia drivers deliever a first class desktop user Linux experience.

Linux users are better off spending 50 bucks on a cheap 9400GT than any current RV7xx series chip. By the time they get any sort of stable and decent performance from those chipsets under linux, the price will probably have come down far more than 40 bucks.

To anyone on the fence between NVidia and ATI, take it from someone who's gone down that road. Just stick with NVidia, the drivers work and you can't appreciate how much that means until you're stuck with fglrx.

[tball]

Give it a break. AMD have had little over a year to fix the flawed Ati drivers. I think they have improved greatly.'ll give you that nvidia's binary driver is better than fglrx, but thats not the main fact here.

1. Fglrx is improving fast (My expirence). I don't say you have got the same expirence. But maybe I have been lucky.

2. We got two very important things in the linux world nvidia don't have. We got a very active AMD employee in here, trying to answer every question we have. And then we got open source support. I can see the open source drivers already got support for the newly not even released RS880 gfx card. And in few month we got 3d support followed by galium3d etc.

Sorry I don't want to start a flamewar. But you have to understand how important it is to have the gfx documentation and a company which support the development of opensource. Thats many times more valuable than an okay working binary blob, if you take the linux and opensource mind into count. That is something you should know, using linux and its opensource ideology. If you don't see the beauty in it, why do you even use linux?

Thats just my opinion, and its completely fair you got another. I just got alittle annoyed when I saw all this AMD/Ati bashing in here. After all its AMD/Ati and intel which got the most open mind. I really don't understand why peoples don't appreciate what they have done for the community. And then lets cross our fingers, and hope they soon will address all the remaining bugs in fglrx in the meantime .

[jonnycat26]

Thats many times more valuable than an okay working binary blob, if you take the linux and opensource mind into count.

Actually, I'd say the NVidia binary is more than 'okay', it's about 'as good as it can possibly get'. We've had VDPAU, working OpenGL 3.0, support for just about every distro, active devs on a message board (sorry, it's just not this one). Out of all of those, ATI has given us... devs who apologize for the state of their drivers.

It's people like you, quite honestly, who hold linux back. When people do make the leap and end up with broken graphics and desktops, do you think they want to hear the philosophical arguments on why they should be happy and wait? Instead of that, let's actively push people towards the companies that properly supports Linux graphics, and that isn't ATI.

[RealNC]

As an ATI onwer, I don't like when others speak for me. "We got open source support." Well, I am an ATI owner and don't give a rat's ass about open source. I only care about things that actually work.

If open source is important to you, then say so. But don't claim that everyone cares. I (and many others) don't.

[tball]

Actually, I'd say the NVidia binary is more than 'okay', it's about 'as good as it can possibly get'. We've had VDPAU, working OpenGL 3.0, support for just about every distro, active devs on a message board (sorry, it's just not this one). Out of all of those, ATI has given us... devs who apologize for the state of their drivers.

It's people like you, quite honestly, who hold linux back. When people do make the leap and end up with broken graphics and desktops, do you think they want to hear the philosophical arguments on why they should be happy and wait? Instead of that, let's actively push people towards the companies that properly supports Linux graphics, and that isn't ATI.

Why should people who make the leap HAVE to install binary drivers. Why shouldn't they just blob in the livecd and have working 2d,3d and video out of the box? Is it people like me who hold linux back? Hehe, actually I am sitting here smiling. I have never told peoples to hurry up bye an Ati card, because we have wonderfull oss driver TODAY if thats what you say. I haven't neither said anything beyond my own experience.

[tball]

As an ATI onwer, I don't like when others speak for me. "We got open source support." Well, I am an ATI owner and don't give a rat's ass about open source. I only care about things that actually work.

Sorry didn't want to speak for others. Thats just my opinion.