Donations for OSS ATI driver

[Plombo]

If you ask any Joe on the street, the vast majority of folks will say "what's Linux?"

Maybe a few years ago that would be true, but in recent years I've mentioned to many people that I use Linux. There hasn't been a single person who asked that question - everyone I've talked to about it knows at least that Linux is an operating system, even the technically non-inclined.

I'm not saying there aren't people in 2011 who don't know what Linux is, but they're the same people who don't know what a graphics card is.

[crazycheese]

If you ask any Joe on the street, the vast majority of folks will say "what's Linux?"

Not anymore. Nowadays they are either linux users, linux haters or "app X, I need, does not work on linux" type. Ask anyone what is Android or Iphone? I think around 50% of population are linux aware.

This is a chicken and egg problem, but as we've said before, we can't justify lots of head count on the open source driver without some demonstrable demand.

You use Gentoo, no? How do you solve circular dependencies on Gentoo?

With the closed source driver most of the code can be shared across OSes (Windows, Linux, etc.) and products (consumer and FirePro). So it doesn't really matter whether the cards we sell are consumer or firepro cards; it's all the same pot.

I always thought that OPEN code is best to be shared across different environiments. Why wouldn't just everyone invent his own languge, protect it and use only privately, suing everyone trying to understand him? You are not inventors or scientists - you are brokers. You invent barriers for consumer money, then you try to build doors for consumer money or emulate via glass windows. And when people ask if they can help build without it - you offer them a shelter out of paper for free.

One reason windows works much better for a lot of graphics related things and why a lot of developers develop for DirectX is that Microsoft puts a huge amount of developer time and money into developing a first rate graphics infrastructure that supports all the features users and developers want in a first class graphics stack. Who's going to do that work on Linux?

I know microsoft uses a lot of (almost all) cash to bribe - its not something new.
Also know that almost every linux desktop user was a windows user and switched for reason. If microsoft would behave, linux would just be a small alternate opensource kernel for windows.

[D0pamine]

everyone uses 'linux' more than they know however the majority of the software on the 'linux' platform is 'GNU' hence 'GNU/Linux' ( linux is just the kernel ) so where does one put ones money??? , your time and patience is far more valuable than your money - even just pointing out problems and bugs is a major help so keep up the good work ya'll

[D0pamine]

You use Gentoo, no? How do you solve circular dependencies on Gentoo?

hum...... dont use a silly set of use flags???

I always thought that OPEN code is best to be shared across different environiments. Why wouldn't just everyone invent his own languge, protect it and use only privately, suing everyone trying to understand him? You are not inventors or scientists - you are brokers. You invent barriers for consumer money, then you try to build doors for consumer money or emulate via glass windows. And when people ask if they can help build without it - you offer them a shelter out of paper for free

Science even in its infancy is better than magic tricks performed by companies/street entertainers

computer science vs computer trickery = 'open/free' vs 'closed/non-free'

that said the GPL gives the community the power and that is why i will always be a free software advocate rather than an open sourced advocate

I know microsoft uses a lot of (almost all) cash to bribe - its not something new.
Also know that almost every linux desktop user was a windows user and switched for reason. If microsoft would behave, linux would just be a small alternate opensource kernel for windows.[/QUOTE]

[D0pamine]

gay edit time , make it 10 mins ffs i'm drunk!

[crazycheese]

everyone uses 'linux' more than they know however the majority of the software on the 'linux' platform is 'GNU' hence 'GNU/Linux' ( linux is just the kernel ) so where does one put ones money??? , your time and patience is far more valuable than your money - even just pointing out problems and bugs is a major help so keep up the good work ya'll

My mother is professional plastic surgeon. She hates computers regardless of their OS. She however did hate linux much less, everything was installed in a matter of minutes, not hours; everything was easy and logical - but once I had that Canon laser printer to connect and Canon provided half-arse(sorry) driver support where I had to research how to program hal and start udev, spending almost 2 days on it she asked me "Perhaps linux is not the best solution". Im talking exactly about such people. They should be able to decide what they want to support themself and if the manufacturer creates problematic support - its them and not the OS.

You just cant make everyone learn bash and start off coding. They will gladly pay those who are apt tp produce opensource code, hardware with opensource drivers, games that can be bought out and become opensource. However those who are apt are behind proprietary walls, showing tongs. :/

[D0pamine]

Gentoo is king thanks to the work of drobbins and the like it has made every distro better over time.
I don't think i'm '1337' or something because I use an 'akward distro', it gives me options that are simply not available in other distros - just to set the record straight - i'm not some gentoo elitist but I do like the options and flexibility gentoo offers - no other distro say for LFS offers support for a 486sx for starters and yes even in 2011 I have to deal with CPU's without math co-processors!

[D0pamine]

My mother is professional plastic surgeon. She hates computers regardless of their OS. She however did hate linux much less, everything was installed in a matter of minutes, not hours; everything was easy and logical - but once I had that Canon laser printer to connect and Canon provided half-arse(sorry) driver support where I had to research how to program hal and start udev, spending almost 2 days on it she asked me "Perhaps linux is not the best solution". Im talking exactly about such people. They should be able to decide what they want to support themself and if the manufacturer creates problematic support - its them and not the OS.

You just cant make everyone learn bash and start off coding. They will gladly pay those who are apt tp produce opensource code, hardware with opensource drivers, games that can be bought out and become opensource. However those who are apt are behind proprietary walls, showing tongs. :/

dude ... rather than sell the free platform short ( and yourself ) charge for your services! after all the likes of microfail charge and offer utter nonsense in return

there is gold in them there hills!

PS and yeh ssh is quicker and better than anything else

[D0pamine]

folks whine because it doesnt offer out-of-the-box support but christ on a bike... you're tech-savvy enough! make some pennies out of it even remotely for a few bucks

[D0pamine]

the GPU freaks are the worst of all i swear! , ' we want same day support for our ubuntu ' this happens already for CPUs so why not for GPUs , its all a sick joke but i love phoronix and many of its non-ex-neowin members :P many a true word is spoken here and people take note