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Currenty our users, like Fedora core 7 users, have ZERO ATI FGLRX drivers available because of the Xorg 1.3 issue, so the best we are currently hoping for is that ATI gets a reality check, or hopefully AMD does, and fires someone in ATI for refusing to maintain the linux kernel drivers in a usable condition. Since it's technically illegal and a license violation to implement the binary hack, our users are out of luck.
I no longer believe that ATI can be trusted at all, and I would encourage users to not email ATI or their card oems, but email AMD, with this type of message:
AMD has enjoyed tremendous success and goodwill from the Linux community, for example, the Opteron line of servers running Linux was a significant profit center for AMD.
AMD is about to lose all that good will to Intel, not just because ATI is doing such a terrible, and actually inexcusable, job, with their Linux drivers, but also because Intel is releasing not only functioning graphics drivers, but Open Source drivers.
For the first time in my computer purchasing life, I am beginning to think about switching away from AMD, who I have always used and recommended, to Intel, because I am beginning to see that NO proprietary binary blob based graphics card can be trusted any more to deliver the goods.
ATI has now clearly shown that not only can they not be trusted to give linux users working drivers, they can NEVER be trusted again. The failure to release a prompt patch for the Xorg 1.3 drivers proves that you can never trust ATI again to support you or your cards.
This is a very serious failing, and AMD would be well advised to investigate the cause of this failing, and remedy the situation, or they risk losing almost all the good will they have built up in the Linux world over the past years. Don't be fooled by any public statements ATI might make, this failing is real, and it's not being fixed. The time they are waiting to do that is far too long, and is completely unacceptable. The time for words has passed, they have shown what their true priorities and intentions are, and that action has to be held up as far more relevant than any excuses they might come up with. Nvidia had no trouble dealing with this issue, at any time, and they released prompt fixes for this stuff. But nVidia drivers have their own problems too, and I don't see trusting nVidia all that much more than ATI, although nVidia is much better.
Forget talking to ATI, that branch of AMD will not be changed until some key people get fired, and the solution is not to go running to those very people, the solution is to get the management of ATI fired. And only AMD can make that happen.
I no longer believe that ATI can be trusted at all, and I would encourage users to not email ATI or their card oems, but email AMD, with this type of message:
AMD has enjoyed tremendous success and goodwill from the Linux community, for example, the Opteron line of servers running Linux was a significant profit center for AMD.
AMD is about to lose all that good will to Intel, not just because ATI is doing such a terrible, and actually inexcusable, job, with their Linux drivers, but also because Intel is releasing not only functioning graphics drivers, but Open Source drivers.
For the first time in my computer purchasing life, I am beginning to think about switching away from AMD, who I have always used and recommended, to Intel, because I am beginning to see that NO proprietary binary blob based graphics card can be trusted any more to deliver the goods.
ATI has now clearly shown that not only can they not be trusted to give linux users working drivers, they can NEVER be trusted again. The failure to release a prompt patch for the Xorg 1.3 drivers proves that you can never trust ATI again to support you or your cards.
This is a very serious failing, and AMD would be well advised to investigate the cause of this failing, and remedy the situation, or they risk losing almost all the good will they have built up in the Linux world over the past years. Don't be fooled by any public statements ATI might make, this failing is real, and it's not being fixed. The time they are waiting to do that is far too long, and is completely unacceptable. The time for words has passed, they have shown what their true priorities and intentions are, and that action has to be held up as far more relevant than any excuses they might come up with. Nvidia had no trouble dealing with this issue, at any time, and they released prompt fixes for this stuff. But nVidia drivers have their own problems too, and I don't see trusting nVidia all that much more than ATI, although nVidia is much better.
Forget talking to ATI, that branch of AMD will not be changed until some key people get fired, and the solution is not to go running to those very people, the solution is to get the management of ATI fired. And only AMD can make that happen.
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