Reality check - AMD needs to get their priorities right.

[givemesugarr]

it was the linux users that asked for this aiglx support.i think that it could be written better than it is now, but you all wanted it and i've seen a lot of threads and posts on forums of people who were asking loud for aiglx. so ati has given you aiglx.
the problem is that a board that normally has 300-500fps like mine with 8.40 even if it gets 1800 fps after the update cannot run smoothly compiz or beryl. consider that ati has given you what i call an experimental driver: they've pushed the speed and given you aiglx that you all were asking for but it is in some way unstable. i think that in the next months this driver would get more and more stable, will fix some issues and will have some minor speed improvements. when the radeonhd would have reached a good point (of what i can see it will implement full 2d support before the end of the year, and hopefully it would be ready by christmass when kde4 gets out) ati would not fully implement the cards that now have the specs released and will concentrate on boosting at best the older boards which will likely not have released the specs (as my x200m) and on implementing the drivers for the future cpu/gpu integrated boards leaving the dedicated boards drivers to the community. but for that to happen we will still need to wait about 6-8 months in my opinion. this is just a supposition.
and don't think that you can run compiz/beryl at a good speed whitout at least an r400 or better card. now compiz and compiz-fusion are more and more resource vampires and using them on r300 or older series would not work very well.

[aoanla]

it was the linux users that asked for this aiglx support.i think that it could be written better than it is now, but you all wanted it and i've seen a lot of threads and posts on forums of people who were asking loud for aiglx. so ati has given you aiglx.

I never wanted it - I wanted a driver that would support my X1950 in a stable and performant fashion. I resent being lumped in with people who think that flash is more important than functionality.

[Shae]

Re: AMD Priorities

Personally I feel AMD is on the right track. They want to do the Linux community right. But it is a process. People have been wanting AIGLX for ever and AMD delivered. Yet people rather look at the bugs than the achievement that the 8.41 and 8.42 releases are. Of course there will be bugs. There will always be bugs. We are only two releases into the new OpenGL codebase and one release into the age of AIGLX for AMD. The fact that the drivers even somewhat work is a feat in its self. Unfortunately AMD is in a hole when it comes to Linux; the market is significantly smaller than the Windows market. Therefore a significant portion of their profits are not from Linux users but rather Windows users. Therefore they cannot dedicate ideal resources to the development of a Linux driver, but at least they try and are delivering progress each month either introducing new features or fixing some bugs.

[aoanla]

Yet people rather look at the bugs than the achievement that the 8.41 and 8.42 releases are.

Because ATI claims not to release beta drivers.

Of course there will be bugs. There will always be bugs. We are only two releases into the new OpenGL codebase and one release into the age of AIGLX for AMD. The fact that the drivers even somewhat work is a feat in its self.

Indeed, they're in what you might call a beta state. Except that ATI doesn't release beta drivers.

Unfortunately AMD is in a hole when it comes to Linux; the market is significantly smaller than the Windows market. Therefore a significant portion of their profits are not from Linux users but rather Windows users. Therefore they cannot dedicate ideal resources to the development of a Linux driver, but at least they try and are delivering progress each month either introducing new features or fixing some bugs.

That's lovely, except that (until the 8x series), nVidia managed to produce Linux drivers which were consistently as good as their Windows drivers, despite the same economic situation applying. It seems, therefore, that there is a flaw in your argument - perhaps it is tied to the silly monthly release schedule which ATI insist on?

If ATI had released 8.42.3 as a "beta" release, then people would have been understanding about the prevalence of bugs. As it is, they insist that all their official releases are non-beta, and thus they are rightly taken to task for the imperfections (some of them considerable) in the implementation.

[FunkyRider]

The stutters and lags are not because of AIGLX but because of their new OGL code base! I tries use both AIGLX and xserver-xgl in 8.42 and they both lags like hell. Switching back to 8.40 instantly solves the problem, silky smooth scroll and video playback (for gods sake forget about the Xv tearing for now). And this reminds me when I was trying 8.41 and it stuttered heavily as well. What they need to do is to correct this FUNDAMENTAL mistake in the driver that somehow makes things stutter, not to blame on users who wanted AIGLX!

[Uchikoma]

Bugs a plenty.
Problems a plenty.
I see some progress though, so I'll keep on waiting.

That's my take.
...and I've waited for a long time already.