AMD Is Hiring Another Lead Linux Kernel Developer To Work On Their Graphics Driver

[Orcblood]

I wish I wasn't just a high-level windows and android developer and could apply. Sadly to get such a job I'd have to poor my whole life into learning, be excellent at math, not getting married, having even less of a social life, etc...

[Guest]

Too little too late. In business, you're expected to invest first before getting returns, not wait for returns before investing.

If they had launched Navi with zero Windows driver support, and said "Wait for a few months or years until we earn a few million dollars from Navi sales and then we'll add support" , do you think anyone would be willing to accept that?

Anyone who argues that "AMD doesn't have money" is being an idiot. Where do you think they get money from for creating hardware and working on Windows drivers?

They aren't some three person operation working from a garage, they're a huge corporation with enough money to hire enough developers for proper Linux support.

Their Linux support is just pathetic compared to NVIDIA and Intel. Hell, even Qualcomm is working on open source Linux drivers.

[schmidtbag]

I'm sure AMD is hiring windows-people too when necessary, it's just that Phoronix is a Linux centric news site.

Understood; doesn't really change my point that their Windows team really needs help.

[starshipeleven]

Not good enough for me, I'm looking for a job where I don't have to do anything and get paid a lot.

I'll also take what this good sir ordered, thank you.

[starshipeleven]

Too little too late. In business, you're expected to invest first before getting returns, not wait for returns before investing.

They waited for returns in Windows market before investing in new niche markets like Linux. That's a sound strategy.

Where do you think they get money from for creating hardware and working on Windows drivers?

Investors that expect a decent return and won't be happy to know that their money is being used to target a secondary and small market like Linux opensource graphics users. It's semi-political as yes it's not technically a significant cost but it gives the wrong impression to investors that could very well decrease funding, which would be bad.

Now that the situation is stable and they are no more losing money each quarter they can justify some more "risky spending" towards Linux and other markets.

Their Linux support is just pathetic compared to NVIDIA

NVIDIA's open source linux support is pathetic, please compare apples to apples.

and Intel.

The GPUs themselves are orders of magnitude simpler and weaker.

Hell, even Qualcomm is working on open source Linux drivers.

Not really. They are contributing to FreeDreno every now and then, but that's not "working on open source Linux drivers".

Also their opensource Linux wifi drivers are little more than a wrapper for the firmware blob that runs on the wifi chipset, so yeah, much opensource, very contribution.

[sindr]

I'm running a Polaris card on Linux and I'm having the best open-source gaming experience of my life. This is no small thanks to Valve's ACO compiler of course, but none of it would have been possible without AMD's open-sourcing the driver code in the first place.

[muncrief]

My primary complaint with AMD now is that the entire idea of a settings GUI for Linux seems to have been lost to the wind. There's no legitimate reason for them not to create an Adrenalin equivalent for Linux any longer.

They're quite profitable, with an excellent road map for the future, and part of the reason they survived the last 10+ years is because of loyal Linux customers like me.

So now is the time for a small thank you in return - a Linux GUI.

[Marc Driftmeyer]

Too little too late. In business, you're expected to invest first before getting returns, not wait for returns before investing.

If they had launched Navi with zero Windows driver support, and said "Wait for a few months or years until we earn a few million dollars from Navi sales and then we'll add support" , do you think anyone would be willing to accept that?

Anyone who argues that "AMD doesn't have money" is being an idiot. Where do you think they get money from for creating hardware and working on Windows drivers?

They aren't some three person operation working from a garage, they're a huge corporation with enough money to hire enough developers for proper Linux support.

Their Linux support is just pathetic compared to NVIDIA and Intel. Hell, even Qualcomm is working on open source Linux drivers.

I'm sorry but their focus is on Apple and Microsoft presently, not to mention Sony, and it is for good reason--99% of their efforts go to their bottom line. All that work with Google, AWS, probably Apple's own Cloud Services and more will pan out on Linux over time.

AMDGPU drivers keep getting better and better. Two years ago my RX 480 8GB XFX Black Edition was getting low 60s fps in 1920x1080 with High and low tessellation on Unigine Heaven. It's now in the mid 80s fps with the same settings. That's phenomenal progress.

[starshipeleven]

part of the reason they survived the last 10+ years is because of loyal Linux customers like me.

Umm, not really. Even if all Linux users were exculively using AMD (and it is not the case) it would have not made any difference in their bottom line

[NotMine999]

Not good enough for me, I'm looking for a job where I don't have to do anything and get paid a lot.

Be a political leader in one of the EU countries....