An Outcry For Improved ATI Linux Drivers

[phoronix]

Phoronix: An Outcry For Improved ATI Linux Drivers

When I heard a sharp and continuous beeping sound, I had just grabbed my mug to enjoy my evening tea with the movie I was trying to watch. Without asking any questions to my computer (implicitly or explicitly), I had put down the mug and reached for the reset button on my PC. This was the third time in 45 minutes and it had never happened before. After I had upgraded to a ATI Radeon X1650XT, things started to go awry in a very annoying fashion.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=9468

[Synergy6]

Is there any data on what percentage of AT/nVidia customers are Linux users?

[liqor_mortis]

Personally, I couldn't live with the poor fglrx drivers any more. I took out the x1950pro I had & reinstalled my old 6800GT.

Going back made me realise how awful the whole experience was with fglrx, the 6800 outperforms the 1950 in every way.

[DarkFoss]

Excellent...Nicely written, and I could not agree more.

Originally Posted by liqor_mortis

Personally, I couldn't live with the poor fglrx drivers any more. I took out the x1950pro I had & reinstalled my old 6800GT.

Going back made me realize how awful the whole experience was with fglrx, the 6800 outperforms the 1950 in every way.

Kind of sums it all up in a sad way....

Originally Posted by Synergy6

Is there any data on what percentage of AT/nVidia customers are Linux users?

Thats something a lot of people would like to know.
Unless there was a reputable website that can prevent multiple voting and near max participation it would be hard to gauge accurately.. Add to that the percentage that dual boot as well as new migrations like the French Parliament recently.. Also Dell's new interest in a Linux line of comps..

All you can really say honestly is that number of Linux users is growing... and with the state of ATI drivers over the past few years and the negative image acquired during the same time. It's probably shrinking..every forum I've visited recommends NVidia when it comes to buying a new card .

In a year Intel gpu's will debut, with their drivers being open source they could overtake ATI as the Number 2 choice.

It makes you wonder how long ATI can afford to hold back implementing their new OpenGL architecture for Linux.

I for one am willing to wait, but how many will? How many have already migrated ? How many lost sales has that translated into Worldwide ?

I'm not buying a new card until I give the new drivers a try.. If I'm not satisfied I will migrate without a second thought.

I too have been using ATI since my first comp with an 8meg onboard Rage chip.. I installed the original all in wonder on it as well.. I still have it in perfect working order.

[Synergy6]

Originally Posted by Synergy6

Is there any data on what percentage of AT/nVidia customers are Linux users?

To add to that, I meant mostly in the categories that make good profits for the companies, such as the high-end cards (both gaming and CAD), and the bulk cards (think a Dell with a Geforce 7300).

Originally Posted by DarkFoss

It makes you wonder how long ATI can afford to hold back implementing their new OpenGL architecture for Linux.

I for one am willing to wait, but how many will? How many have already migrated ? How many lost sales has that translated into Worldwide ?

My guess would be they can probably wait quite a long time. After all, the "big" cards are for gaming and CAD, neither of which Linux leads in, and Linux support among major desktop resellers is patchy at best. Of course, Linux is king in server installations, but they don't generally need too many 8800GTXs.

[liqor_mortis]

Also Dell's new interest in a Linux line of comps..

I have great expectations of Dell's intention to ship PCs with Linux installed. I can't help but hope that this decision by a major manufacturer will change the way that all hardware suppliers think about Linux support. Not just graphics cards, but things like sound and wireless connectivity.

Let's face it, the vast majority of home PC users are not gamers or CAD/CAE operators. They use the PC for e-mail, web browsing, writing letters, digital photography and downloading music. Linux excels at all these tasks and it is a great shame that we (the Linux community) have not been able to convince people of that. I don't use it, but I have been cheering Ubuntu from the sidelines, ever since I heard about it, for trying to make Linux accessible to non-geeks.

[Synergy6]

I didn't say most people use CAD or play games. But it is a useful revenue stream. The other major one is the retailers selling boxes to people who don't know what a graphics card is, but most of their stuff is still Windows. I don't think most people really care about their OS, they'll juts use what's provided.

Although, it is debateable what Dell's decision would do for Ati users. If they're mainly selling integrated or very low-end graphics card, they don't have to worry too much about great drivers. If they did make drivers, I'd be 90% sure they'd be a Dell and graphics card-specific closed binary, of little use to the wider community.

[yoshi314]

if i were running a company as dell, i would just ship linux preinstalled pcs with nvidia cards for people that would need fast 3d features, and intel cards for average users. just because fitting my pcs with ati cards would result in customers flooding my tech support with problems, and general dissapointment.