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Early Adopters Already Hit By Fedora Dropping Old Linux GPU Drivers

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  • Early Adopters Already Hit By Fedora Dropping Old Linux GPU Drivers

    Phoronix: Early Adopters Already Hit By Fedora Dropping Old Linux GPU Drivers

    While it's been known since last year that Fedora wants to get rid of old GPU drivers that don't have DRM/KMS support and their plans moved forward months ago to rid the system of old GPU drivers, some Linux enthusiasts running against the latest Fedora development code are surprised their GPU driver vanished...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    I'll support this if it means we'll get better out of the box driver support for things like printers and scanners. Most printers I have to manually set up in such a way that no one without technical expertise could hope to figure out. If you have to edit config files and add new ones manually, then something is wrong.

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    • #3
      I think as long as the old packages are available that should be ok.
      If older GPUs get stuck with older Xorg, so be it.
      If they get stuck with older Linux as well, that could be more annoying.

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      • #4
        I have once read on LWN.net some Linux kernel confence coverage (I do not remember what was its name and am not able to find it).

        The developers were discussing doing the kernel 3.0 release. There were various ideas what should go into it. At some point someone proposed removing support for old hardware. Linus disagreed, saying that there are people in various parts of the world that are still using the hardware and we do not want to drop support for them.

        There are some people that invest a significant amount of time to develop the "accessibility" features. If we support people with disabilities and illnesses, why should we not do the same for those of us that simply cannot afford new hardware?

        I have read about projects that get old computers for free, install Linux on them and give them out to people in need. That way old hardware support is still important.

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        • #5
          I am in the opinion that legacy graphics hardware should be dropped after a safe period of time, if the maintenance of the code is a serious burden. Mostly when the driver (like the case of the SiS GPU) never worked quite well.

          For the rest of the hardware, I don't like the idea of removing support... a 13 year old laptop can still be used as a small home server, but not to watch Youtube. I am using a 2001 Dell Latitude C400 as my home server, but using it for web browsing is a torture; even before Intel dropped the acceleration support for its i810 GPU.
          Fortunately, most drivers don't need constant heavy maintenance, so this part is easy.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Prescience500 View Post
            I'll support this if it means we'll get better out of the box driver support for things like printers and scanners. Most printers I have to manually set up in such a way that no one without technical expertise could hope to figure out. If you have to edit config files and add new ones manually, then something is wrong.
            What kind of printers are you talking about? I've never had an issue, in fact I have more issues on Windows.

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            • #7
              I don't get the problem. The drivers are dropped when there are no maintainers to keep them working, aren't they?

              Want to have your old/exotic hw supported? Find/become a maintainer.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by Mat2 View Post
                I have once read on LWN.net some Linux kernel confence coverage (I do not remember what was its name and am not able to find it).

                The developers were discussing doing the kernel 3.0 release. There were various ideas what should go into it. At some point someone proposed removing support for old hardware. Linus disagreed, saying that there are people in various parts of the world that are still using the hardware and we do not want to drop support for them.

                There are some people that invest a significant amount of time to develop the "accessibility" features. If we support people with disabilities and illnesses, why should we not do the same for those of us that simply cannot afford new hardware?

                I have read about projects that get old computers for free, install Linux on them and give them out to people in need. That way old hardware support is still important.
                The thing is they are not dropping support just because its old hardware. They are dropping support because the software is old and works in a way that modern drivers don't. If someone was to add DRM/KMS support to these drivers then they would still be supported. However finding someone to do it is the problem. There has been talk of adding support for some of them before, even in these forums but it has never happened. This guy once said he might do it but his blog is now offline: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...tem&px=MTE2Mzk

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Prescience500 View Post
                  I'll support this if it means we'll get better out of the box driver support for things like printers and scanners. Most printers I have to manually set up in such a way that no one without technical expertise could hope to figure out. If you have to edit config files and add new ones manually, then something is wrong.
                  You must be kidding. what has the one to do with the other.

                  Before F21, I could boot my netbook just fine, now I need to boot in low graphics mode for some reason from the livecd, because else I get a kernel panic or something similar. But after I installed the system, I could drop low graphics mode... intel gma 950
                  Also GNOME runs very poorly on this netbook... Better I switch back to windows xp :/ Or lxde. Is there a more lightweight browser than firefox... gtk webkit is so broken I dont even want to mention it.
                  Last edited by gotwig; 24 September 2014, 04:16 AM.

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                  • #10
                    I've got no problem with individual distros dropping support, as long as there's an alternative distro that someone could use who's still rocking this old hardware. There's far too many distros, surely there's room for ones that are modern and only support modern hardware, and others that are more comprehensive in their hardware support.

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