If You Forgot, S3 Graphics Does Linux Drivers Too

[phoronix]

Phoronix: If You Forgot, S3 Graphics Does Linux Drivers Too

Last night when checking to see if VIA has made any open-source / Linux progress that went unnoticed (they haven't), that also led me to see what S3 Graphics is up to these days. S3 Graphics doesn't back any open-source driver strategy and they don't have many GPUs on the market, but their binary Linux driver claims to support OpenGL 3, VDPAU, and even kernel mode-setting since last year...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=ODgxOA

[damipereira]

You seem to be talking like they are doing it bad, I think that already providing all that is a LOT and that it's only disadvantage is not supporting up to date distributions, I know they should give open source driver, but this is a good thing and we should be happy about it.

[TheCycoONE]

You seem to be talking like they are doing it bad, I think that already providing all that is a LOT and that it's only disadvantage is not supporting up to date distributions, I know they should give open source driver, but this is a good thing and we should be happy about it.

I'd be much happier if explicitly gave permission to use S3TC in open source software without license fees. Far less work than creating a driver with a far greater impact on the open source community.

[BlackStar]

You seem to be talking like they are doing it bad, I think that already providing all that is a LOT and that it's only disadvantage is not supporting up to date distributions, I know they should give open source driver, but this is a good thing and we should be happy about it.

What you are saying is, "if you bought a machine with a S3 GPU, you are basically screwed." Why should we be happy about that?

I'd be much happier if explicitly gave permission to use S3TC in open source software without license fees. Far less work than creating a driver with a far greater impact on the open source community.

Thumbs up.

Unfortunately, this will never happen. S3 makes a lot of money out of this patent and will milk it to death (unless it folds and someone more OSS-friendly buys it - which is rather unlikely).

[damipereira]

What you are saying is, "if you bought a machine with a S3 GPU, you are basically screwed." Why should we be happy about that?

I've never said that ,I've only read this article and AFAIK it support vdpau and opengl 3, this in my opinion is already very good, being able to use video acceleration and new games is a good thing I don't know what you mean by basically screwed, you won't be able to use lastest distribution maybe, but at least You should be able to see videos on a low profile pc, I think everyone is too negative, maybe I'm wrong, I do think that it would be nice to have opensource drivers, but I also think this is MUCH better than nothing and is something to celebrate.

[BlackStar]

I've never said that ,I've only read this article and AFAIK it support vdpau and opengl 3, this in my opinion is already very good, being able to use video acceleration and new games is a good thing I don't know what you mean by basically screwed, you won't be able to use lastest distribution maybe, but at least You should be able to see videos on a low profile pc, I think everyone is too negative, maybe I'm wrong, I do think that it would be nice to have opensource drivers, but I also think this is MUCH better than nothing and is something to celebrate.

One driver update per year and no new distro support == evolutionary dead end.

It may support GL3, but does it support 3.1, 3.2 or 3.3? Will it ever gain that support? What about future versions? What if you discover a driver bug?

And what if you ever wish to upgrade your distro to use some useful new feature (say, new Firefox, KDE 4.6 / Gnome 3 / Unity / whatever)?

The blob actually ties you down to a specific configuration like an anchor. I wouldn't like to be stuck in such a situation (and cannot in good faith recommend such hardware to others).

[ad_267]

One driver update per year and no new distro support == evolutionary dead end.

Except this is fine for many businesses and organisations that stick with older, stable distribution releases for ages and when they update, they never update to the most recent release. It's only a pain for the personal users who use the most recent releases.

[BlackStar]

Except this is fine for many businesses and organisations that stick with older, stable distribution releases for ages and when they update, they never update to the most recent release. It's only a pain for the personal users who use the most recent releases.

Somehow I doubt that those businesses would buy S3 GPUs. As in, really really doubt.

Businesses are either content with Intel IGPs or they will go with discrete Nvidia Quadros. AMD also has a (small but growing) presence on this market. S3, simply put, doesn't.

Edit: to clarify, businesses don't require GL3 or VDPAU. (And if they use GL3, they've already gone Nvidia, closed deal.)

[clavko]

This got rather interesting recently with AMD's Zacate (E-350) and VIA's Nano dualcore imminent releases ahead. Benchmarks at Anandtech showing better CPU performance for Nano DC and better GPU performance for Zacate. Apparently there is a Chrome 5xx in Nano DC. However, linux support will undoubtedly excell with E-350. Nano DC also has some sort of HD video acceleration that might get VDPAU-ed sooner than E-350's. Tempting, tempting...

[allquixotic]

Wait, a binary module supporting KMS? Can we say violation of the GPL?