NVIDIA Already Publishes An OpenGL 4.5 Linux Driver

[pijaczek]

Yes, but sometimes you gotta give credit where credit is due.
I don't like Nvidia, and I don't see myself buying anything from Nvidia any time soon, but nonetheless its a good job and impressive that they are already out with a beta driver so fast.

Nvidia release beta drivers with the new version of OpenGL since version 3.1. Nothing new.

I hope that AMD and Intel comes out with a OpenGL 4.5 beta driver soon too.

Approximating the history of releases of drivers, AMD (closed source) at the end of the year, Intel in closed-source Windows drivers for the next generation of GPU (they still do not have support for 4.4)

[schmidtbag]

AMD (or, ATI anyway) has always been known for less-than-par drivers. Since AMD took control, they did a better job on the Windows side. Whenever I get problems in Windows, I just purge all traces of the drivers, install the latest stable release, and everything works fine. But for me personally, I never buy the latest greatest thing, both in terms of hardware and software, so my experience with them is probably better than average. With linux, I just switch between open source and catalyst and usually one of the two will do what I need without a problem. But as the open source drivers have caught up so much, I haven't really found a reason to switch back (except for crossfire support).

[aksdb]

Use Arch - then you're only stuck with old X.org versions.

That is bad enough actually. And I am using Arch :-)
I got rid of the hassle by buying a NVidia card (again). The AMD card was only a filler anyway (which I got very cheap) which I also used as an experiment to see how the Linux side plays out. But just as you said, at least I found out that the open source drivers are performing rather well. At the point where even the Windows drivers broke my multi monitor setup I just gave up. AMD seems just incompetent when it comes to Software. (That's my personal opinion of course; I'm not trying to state this as a universal fact.)

[schmidtbag]

Which isn't exactly a bad idea given that AMD usually opens itself up to a lot of hate by ignoring any recent developments (forcing users to use old X.org or old Kernel versions).
So, is it "surprising" to see this from NVidia? No. But it certainly still is remarkable.

Use Arch - then you're only stuck with old X.org versions. Or, just use the open source drivers. Obviously it depends on which GPU model you have. For me personally, I have 2 HD5750s but I would rather not use my 2nd GPU and stick with the open source drivers. I actually didn't get that many problems with catalyst, but since I'm switching to wayland as soon as it's available for KDE, I'm better off ditching catalyst anwyay.

[aksdb]

They had access to the specifiation long time before it was published. So, it's not that surprising, but they do that so that the hardware websites talk about them and for their brand image.

Which isn't exactly a bad idea given that AMD usually opens itself up to a lot of hate by ignoring any recent developments (forcing users to use old X.org or old Kernel versions).
So, is it "surprising" to see this from NVidia? No. But it certainly still is remarkable.

[Calinou]

They had access to the specifiation long time before it was published. So, it's not that surprising, but they do that so that the hardware websites talk about them and for their brand image.

[uid313]

wait wait wait..... aren't you the one who hates everything close source regardless of how much it helps the open source community in the long run?

Yes, but sometimes you gotta give credit where credit is due.
I don't like Nvidia, and I don't see myself buying anything from Nvidia any time soon, but nonetheless its a good job and impressive that they are already out with a beta driver so fast.
I hope that AMD and Intel comes out with a OpenGL 4.5 beta driver soon too.

[schmidtbag]

Good job!
Very quick out with a beta!
Very nice that its so fast out with a beta!

wait wait wait..... aren't you the one who hates everything close source regardless of how much it helps the open source community in the long run?

[uid313]

Praise to Nvidia

Good job!
Very quick out with a beta!
Very nice that its so fast out with a beta!

[phoronix]

Phoronix: NVIDIA Already Publishes An OpenGL 4.5 Linux Driver

While the OpenGL 4.5 specification is fresh off the press and we haven't even seen the Khronos SIGGRAPH announcement yet, NVIDIA has already made public their OpenGL 4.5 beta drivers for Linux and Windows...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTc1OTg