Are Linux Drivers Rubbish & Is Linux Ready For Steam?

[tapir]

If ATI drivers are rubbish I'm sure Steam coming to linux will make some changes in AMD's thinking.

Also waiting for a less messy multimedia and audio api is nonsense. Because we might never have one. The best thing to do is to use what we have to its limits. I'm not sure why STEAM would need multimedia apis (or what is a multimedia api? it seems too vague) but for video we have gstreamer which is a freedesktop standard and it has a clean codebase. For audio we have PulseAudio which seems to work ok for a while now.

[Chewi]

My vote would be for OpenAL. It's very cross-platform, works well for other games and plays nicely with the other APIs. I even use it for MPlayer because native ALSA doesn't support 5.0 surround.

As for Catalyst, who cares? I'm never touching that piece of crap again. The open drivers may need speeding up but they will get there eventually.

[rohcQaH]

Wow, now Michael actively feeds the trolls to get some page-hits. Disgusting.

[curaga]

Posting forum chat as news is a double-edged sword.

As long as you keep tact, and stay coherent on what gets posted, I think it will be an improvement.

[mirv]

Though I remain dubious about the prospects of steam coming to linux, keeping healthy discussion going can be a good thing. The "article" (for lack of a better word) is quite good in that aspect.
My 2c on both topics: I don't actually have many issues with fglrx (or nvidia) at current - so long as people use the distro method of installing both! I stuffed up something a while back, and now have to use ati's installer instead of a proper ebuild, at least until I stop being lazy and find what I broke, but hey that's all my own fault.
Can't say much about the audio system, but never really had a problem with it. That may change in a few months when I plan on looking into OpenAL.

[d2kx]

Mac wasn't ready for Steam (see poor OpenGL support and performance issues). Linux is ready.

[yotambien]

As you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.

Dear Phoronix

I want to note that a suspected war criminal is now writing in this forum. So far the content posted is only one more instance of the utter contempt for human life (in this particular case US soldiers) shown by this sinister personage.

I hope that a fulminant and permanent ban will be enacted as soon as the forum rules are broken. I remind you that, as per forum rule no. 06, "posts that violate local, state, or federal laws are not permitted", and "the discussion, suggesting, encouraging, or engaging in any illegal activities is also strictly prohibited". Given the known allegiances of Mr Rumsfeld, I suggest a close monitoring of all his posts, particularly regarding comments that may contravene rule no. 06 with respect to the US War Crimes Act, Torture Victims Protection Act, United Nations Convention Against Torture and Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions.

Thank you.

[FunkyRider]

Dear Phoronix

I want to note that a suspected war criminal is now writing in this forum. So far the content posted is only one more instance of the utter contempt for human life (in this particular case US soldiers) shown by this sinister personage.

Thank you.

L.O.L W.T.F!? You must be drunk, go get some rest

[V!NCENT]

L.O.L W.T.F!? You must be drunk, go get some rest

[nanonyme]