Future of ATI Linux drivers

[cleric]

...like embedded (your DRM-infested DVD player probably runs Linux internallY) often have no choice but to use closed drivers because their market requires DRM.

One of the challenges has always been that different people have very different views of what Linux is about. What do you think it is ?

I don't think that it is this or that. I think that linux is what we all make it to.

Following Ubuntu it could become a replacement for windows.

Personally i am following gentoo. "its about configuration"
I wonder if linux can become all of this in one or if there will be a splitt in the future... we will see.

I didn't fully understand this. Am I "the bridge" here, or are you talking about Phoronix moderators and other forum members ?

Well i thought that it does fit you nick - maybe even that is not coincidence

But to be sure we dont know who is the bridge. But your definitely a part of it and you should know best who the bridge is.

[cleric]

Porter, I just noticed that I mixed your original post up with cleric's. Forget everything I said about unaccelerated Xv interfaces -- that was from Cleric's question.

Cleric, my mistake. It was you asking about the unaccelerated Xv interface not Porter. Can you fill me in on how that would help vs. just using X11 ?

Thanks,
John

Well as someone else already noted some applications just need xv to work. There are some video players that needs it because they lack opengl support. etc.


Martin

[cleric]

(deleted evidence of my mixing up cleric's & Porter's posts

The fglrx driver already has accelerated Xv using TexturedVideo on 5xx and up and VideoOverlay for the older ASICs which had video processing built into the overlay block. Right now there is tearing on the TexturedVideo implementation (a diagonal line), but you should see improvements there soon. X11 is a good option on the radeonhd driver today but Xv is a better choice on fglrx.

Regarding the "soon":

monthly releases are fine but short feature driven releases are better. really. yes i am a software developer.

Try to set your targets from 2-6 weeks and everything will be fine. Don't try to program feature xxx in the next 4 weeks. it wont work and creates a lot of extra work. tested thousands of times with small and big teams

Try to develop agile without falling into chaos

martin

[bridgman]

I agree competely. We don't try to force feature development into fixed windows -- development happens in a continuous mainline. Projects to add features can start and end in the middle of a release window. Some times we give you feature releases off the mainline -- other times you get a maintenance release off a branch, depending on what we're trying to accomplish at the time.

[Redeeman]

Yeah i know that r300 is doing pretty well, but as far as i understand its most certainly not thanks to ati/amd..

when will the 3d docs come?

[Pseus]

Yeah i know that r300 is doing pretty well, but as far as i understand its most certainly not thanks to ati/amd..

when will the 3d docs come?

Actually, fglrx seems to work quite well on my r300 hardware =)

[rbmorse]

Actually, fglrx (8.02) seems to work quite well on my R580+.

I'm a little surprised, too, but I'll take it.

[domi]

It does and it will. As far as i know nearly all linux users use nvidia cards. change that. but to do so you need nice drivers

I think that Bridgeman's point referred to the whole Linux market, including Nvidia, Intel and ATI.

[cleric]

I think that Bridgeman's point referred to the whole Linux market, including Nvidia, Intel and ATI.

That doesnt change the fact that the market wont grow without good drivers because possible users are scared away cause of driver problems.

Linux _could_ have a 10x grow rate if there where good driver support through all hw products. GFX driver support is one of the big threads.

[bridgman]

For us, one of the big reasons for supporting open source development was to make it easier for distros to provide a good (non-scary) out of box experience for new users.