[COLUG] Re: Video Cards

[Rob Funk]

William Yang wrote:
> Rob Funk wrote:
> > You have a good example of working in the short term.  It'd be a
> > better example if you were able to use the distribution-provided
> > drivers.
>
> I really wish we'd get off the religious aspect of FOSS.

I'm not talking about religion.  I'm talking about practicality.
And not just practicality for those who actually have nVidia cards 
(whether you care about binary drivers or not), but also those of us who 
prefer to stick with the advantages of open drivers.

> I've used the Gentoo distribution-provided nvidia (proprietary) drivers
> on a couple of systems since I deployed those boxes in 4Q06.  I haven't
> had any problems on the G71 (GeForce 7300 GS) cards in my laptop or
> primary desktop.  There've been a number of driver updates since then.
>
> I don't see that as being particularly short-term,

I actually do see that as somewhat short-term.  My newest desktop machine 
is about a year old, not much newer than your 4Q06 boxes, but my other 
major desktop machine is about five years old (and was my first ATX box).  
My laptop is about 7-8 years old (yes, that one's definitely due to be 
replaced).  All are running current or recent releases of Ubuntu (October 
2007 or April 2008).

>  nor do I see that as
> being particularly sub-standard or inferior from a functional,
> stability, or maintenance standpoint.

That's where the kernel developers' statement, and the detail in the "Tale 
of Three Drivers" essay, come in.  The binary drivers *do* have bugs.  
People *do* complain to Linux developers about those bugs.  The Linux 
developers can't do anything about it.  Or, the kernel has bugs that 
appear when people use the binary drivers, but the developers still can't 
do anything about it without the driver source.

Further, we get incidents like Fedora being pressured to delay a release 
because nVidia hadn't yet released a driver compatible with the version 
of X in the Fedora release.  http://lwn.net/283291/
(As far as I know, the release was delayed two weeks, but I think it did 
come out before nVidia's support was ready.)
Or analogously, the kernel developers are constantly getting pressured not 
to break binary module compatibility as they improve things, while 
without such huge popularity of a small number of binary drivers they'd 
be more free to change internal interfaces as necessary.

> But I'd also recommend against buying blindly into any FUD-like
> religious discussion of FOSS, without recognizing it for what it is. 
> ;-)

And labeling legitimate issues as "FUD-like religious discussion" helps 
how?

Did you read any of the links that have been posted?

-- 
==============================|   "A microscope locked in on one point
 Rob Funk <rfunk at funknet.net> |Never sees what kind of room that it's in"
 http://www.funknet.net/rfunk |    -- Chris Mars, "Stuck in Rewind"