Originally posted by Qaridarium
I don't understand ATI's/AMD's strategy. The most expensive cards are being bought by gamers. That's where the money is, isn't it? But, fglrx drivers sound like they're a mess. There is a great opportunity now with Nvidia blowing it with overpowered, high heat producing new cards that seem to be way less efficient compared to ATI's highest performance cards. I'm talking about Fermi and going by what I've read. I probably shouldn't comment like this but even at a basic level, AMD/ATI have a good opportunity right now in both Windows and especially Linux. Whether hard core Linux users like it or not, Linux devs are dumming down their distros (hey, I won't complain too much) and making it easier all the time for basic computer users. The Desktop is expanding into way more GUI styles and offer so many various DEs to use, Gnome, KDE, xfce, LXDE, OpenBox, Fluxbox etc. etc. Linux experts have called some of the changes 'more bloat' but really, if the growing pains can be dealt with, Linux could appeal more to the general user if the progressions continue. There's an actual threat to Microsoft despite the apparent success of Windows 7.
With gamers buying up ATI cards, some of those will start dual booting Linux but if problems are experienced because of poor ATI drivers, that experiment will fail. Other Linux users, whether they dual boot or not will want ATI cards when upgrading because the newest hardware is superior to Nvidia alternatives. So, poor ATI drivers will dissaude those Linux users as well. OSS drivers are good but to continually focus on these until fglrx drivers are 100% functional and on a level with Nvidia and/or ATI drivers in Windows is shortsighted, imho. OSS drivers should be an ultimate goal or ideal but to to have both types of drivers in an incomplete and subpar state ALL THE TIME is a big mistake that ATI/AMD might be underestimating the fallout. Imho, they are missing an opportunity to fix this problem. But, what do I know, I guess....
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