AMD Releases ACPI Header For Open-Source GPU Driver

[liam]

For me neither, I'm quite happy with it.

But I live with a designer. We have a Windows machine just for Photoshop. And Illustrator. Yes, I know, I use Inkscape, but I'm not a professional.

There is a lot of specialised software keeping people away. I agree with you in principle, but this argument does not hold water with people who use their computers professionally -- and ultimately they decide to switch or not.

Digikam >>> iPhoto and Amarok >>> iTunes, these are not the problem.

I realise you live with a designwr but you must realise that the first-hand knowledge you have can't be generalized. I know professional designers (both corporate and freelance) who use a floss workflow. Inkscape in particular is quite poweful and has some features that illustrator doesn't.
I also know of designers who swear they need to run their adobe suite on a mac, but thats not the point. Professional designers (as in geting paid for their work) can, and do, use some of the floss tools.

[Ex-Cyber]

Granted. No problem.

The one caveat is to note that the phrase "a lot of specialised software keeping people away" applies only to relatively few people. "A lot of specialised software" could easily (and does) refer to thsousands of applications, yet still only a small percentage of the general userbase.

Each specialized package is relevant to few people, but collectively the thousands of specialized packages are relevant to a lot of people.

[hal2k1]

Each specialized package is relevant to few people, but collectively the thousands of specialized packages are relevant to a lot of people.

Yes, but still, that total number is still very small compared to the number whose every need is well satisfied by the wide variety of excellent open source software available to Linux distributions.

If one is at interested in digital photography, digikam would be more than sufficient to meet every need to support that interest except for a very few. A tiny minority onl would need more. Just as there are only a very few whose need for specialised digital photography software goes beyond what is offered by open source solutions, so it is for just about every application area. Then again, there are some areas where the very best software available is available as open source ... the Firefox and Chrome desktop web browsers are just one example.

Even though there are thousands of very specialised software products available (at great expense) only for the Windows platform, it is still the case that the number of people who truly need any of these products at all is a minority.

Most people just use a web browser, IM client, email program, Office Suite, file manager, software manager, document/image viewers, a media player, music collection manager, skype maybe, perhaps a CD burner, perhaps a bittorrent client , maybe a couple of simple games similar to tetris ... and after that, not much else. All of this is perfectly satisfied by Linux desktop software.