Re: radeon driver heading in wrong direction :-(.

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On Sun, 2010-01-31 at 16:25 +0200, Gilboa Davara wrote:
> On Sun, 2010-01-31 at 20:30 +0800, Ed Greshko wrote:
> > In my case, none of the above...
> 
> Oh, come on!
> I'm using the same binary driver as you are.
> And yes, nVidia binary driver, while -far- better than ATI's driver, has
> had it's share of issues.
> E.g.
> - Initial F12 xorg + nVidia driver combo resulted in unbelievably slow
> performance under KDE.
> - Legacy driver releases tend to lag the "current" driver badly. In a
> desktop, you could always switch to the latest version, but you laptop
> still carries a GF5600M, you're more or less screwed.
> - Xen kernel were never supported by nVidia.
> - Having to compile a kernel without 4K stacks for months, until nVidia
> added support for it.
> 
>  .... Again, nVidia is doing an admirable job at keeping their drivers
> stable and current (compared to say, ATI or Intel Poulsbo), but claiming
> the using them do not come at a price, is ridicules, at best.

Points well taken. But there's a flip side to this as well.

Nouveau only supports 2D, and the OpenSource Radeon driver has had at
least as many ...ummm issues as the proprietary driver.

So, if you need true 3D graphics support without a lot of issues, at the
moment nVidia with their proprietary driver is your best option. This,
of course, could change with the next set of releases from any of the
players.

Accepting reduced function - especially when needed - for the sake of
OpenSource dedication will lead down the path of people not adopting
OpenSource software. We must face the reality that most people could
care less about the type of license their software has, compared to if
it meets their particular needs. As the CEO of Black and Decker once put
it, people don't buy quarter-inch drills; they buy quarter-inch holes.

As for me, I will happily and fervently use the OpenSource drivers once
they meet my specific needs. Until then, it makes no sense for me to do
so. So, in the meantime, I will cheer them on and hope they will
someday. I will help test new features when I'm able to, and provide
feedback. But when it comes time to do the job I need to do, I will
choose those tools which meet the need. Period.

Right now, that means I use the nVidia proprietary drivers on my desktop
and blacklist Nouveau. On my RadeonHD capable laptop, I switch (thank
goodness it has dual graphics processor options) to use the built-in
Intel chipset and OpenSOurce Intel drivers instead. I'll switch back
when one of the ATI driver teams actually gets their act together and
produces something stable, functional, and reliable.

I recently had to switch to Sun Java from OpenJDK for similar reasons. A
Nortel provided, Java based management utility simply puked on OpenJDK.
It works great on Sun Java. Better to use Sun Java so I can configure
important function on my Nortel switch than to be a fanatic for OpenJDK
and not get the job done...

Cheers,

Chris


--
=============================
"You see things as they are and ask, 'Why?'
I dream things as they never were and ask, 'Why not?'"

-- George Bernard Shaw



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