ati + open source
by Christopher Blizzard
The ATI marketing guy on stage (Henri Richard) at the Red Hat Summit just committed to fixing the ATI problems with open source. To paraphrase “most people are worried about what they will lose…IP, etc…we’re worried about what we can win.” They know it’s a problem and they are committed to fixing it.
My current laptop is Intel-only. I chose it because of the OSS support.
My current desktop box has an older ATI card (9200). I’m keeping it because of the OSS support, though a better OSS-supported card would be acceptable.
My next desktop box is likely to be with Intel graphics due to the lack of availability of OSS drivers for Xpress200 (which I’m aware is being worked on) and for the X1000 series and the lack of availability of older ATI cards. Oh, and the Intel hardware is adequate for what I want of it… :-)
So, any news about this ? Some of the commenters seem to imply there should have been an announcement of some sort…
All the people who are whining about mediocre ATI support should try running the graphics chipset I have in MY laptop…
It’s an SiS. And it won’t run DRI, period. 3D? Forget even fast 2D.
Linux driver support was the main thing why I selected NVidia over ATI, even though my motherboard was built for ATI cards.(It supports ATI CrossFire.)
I really would have selected ATI, if they had some decent driver support for Linux.
Chris indicated that there was more info coming from ATI. I agree that AMD/ATI opening their drivers is really the only way to appease the majority of Free Software enthusiasts. (I currently only purchase Intel solutions). The question for me is whether the opening of ATI’s drivers would end up being a lot like the original Netscape code dump. i.e. – lots of good stuff in there with a whole lot of holes that would need to be filled by new code because there were unopenable parts. This is really something for Redhat, Mandriva, Linspire. Canonical, etc. to get behind and generate market pressure going.
[...] Entretanto, a AMD/ATI permitiu-se lançar um anúncio dúbio, que para não entendidos pode ser lido como suportando o Software Livre, mas que para entendidos como o Christopher Blizzard, se torna algo incerto e merecedor de algum cepticismo. [...]
[...] The keynote by Matthew Szulik was good (video here) but the talk by AMD’s Henri Richard was even better. Henri said that AMD is committed to improving driver support in Linux for ATI cards (since AMD owns ATI). That’s good for them, though I’ll believe it when I see it. Give me a reason to not buy nVidia, AMD. [...]
[...] While the announcement from ATI about their intention to provide better support for Linux is certainly welcome it’s not clear what exactly they intend to do. They don’t appear to have actually said that they will release their drivers. This could actually be a really good thing – for example, I’d expect that documentation and support for people producing free drivers would be at least as useful as their current proprietary code – but it’s worth bearing in mind. « The law is… | [...]
[...] Para los que gustan de utilizar únicamente software libre o abierto, dedico estas lineas acerca de la nueva situación de los drivers de nvidia y ATI. De un tiempo a esta parte una comunidad de desarrolladores esta manteniendo unos divers para las placas gráficas de nvidia, como una alternativa abierta al software oficial y privativo. Así, recientemente han liberado una nueva versión de desarrollo del nvidia.driver, se trata de la 100.14.03 Beta. Debido a que nvidia se niega a liberar los specs de sus placas (necesarios para construir un driver decente), los desarrolladores del soporte abierto se valen de ingeniería inversa para construir el software. En cuanto a ATI, por el momento su política es similar a la de nvidia, no obstante su situación estaría por cambiar, algo que puede inferirse de las palabras extraoficiales del director de ventas y márketing de AMD (compañía que adquirió ATI el pasado año) Henri Richard, quien en el reciente Red Hat Summit hablo en relación a una eventual liberación del código del driver ATI: “La mayoría de las personas está preocupada por lo que podría perder” aludiendo a la propiedad intelectual, y mas adelante “Nosotros estamos preocupados en lo que podríamos ganar”. Mientras tanto una comunidad de desarrolladores está usando ingeniería inversa a fin de crear unos drivers Open-Source para las placas de AMD/ATI. Aquí pueden descargar el driver open source de nvidia: http://www.0xdeadbeef.com/weblog/?p=288 http://freshmeat.net/redir/nvidiadrivers/66533/url_tgz/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.03-pkg1.run [...]
[...] I believe the above news story is just an incorrect understanding of what Henry said, but it would be nice. I think it is much more credible to trust Blizzard’s report on it: “The ATI marketing guy on stage (Henri Richard) at the Red Hat Summit just committed to fixing the ATI problems with open source. To paraphrase “most people are worried about what they will lose…IP, etc…we’re worried about what we can win.” They know it’s a problem and they are committed to fixing it.” [...]
Blizzard, does ATI/AMD have a contact email address and/or bugzilla and/or support forum where people who have problems with Linux and ATI chips can converse (with ATI and with each other)? Failing that, what’s Henri Richard’s email address? :-) I have a new HP dc5750 which is built with ATI chips, and it has various troubles with the ATI chips (not just with video), and so far I’ve found ZIP as far as support resources at ATI. They say to talk to my vendor (HP) who says Linux isn’t supported. End of story?
If ATI opensource there graphics drivers my next graphics card will be an ATI.
Funny thing, the official ati drivers for my x800 when run under Debian caused the thing to overheat and lock up my computer. Instead when I ran the xorg drivers, while 3d wasn’t supported, I no longer smelled burning. I now use Ubuntu with the xorg drivers with 3d accelleration configured and it works flawlessly to an extent… (Me thinks the overheating was due to a missing capacitor though…)
Well it’s been almost 3 months since the announcement was made, and it’s amazing how much has changed since then.
Don’t know about you but I’m going to believe everything that AMD tells me from now on wrt to linux.
I tell you, I’m so glad I bought the latest ATI card. Compiz at 2fps is just f*&king brilliant!!!!!!!!
[...] Back at the Red Hat Summit, Henri Richard said that AMD (and the former ATI) were going to come up with a plan to better support open source. Today we see the results of that promise and I have to say I’m incredibly impressed with the commitment that they have decided to make. I know that this was a struggle inside of AMD and I want to send a personal thanks to the people who worked hard to make this a reality. They deserve full credit and our thanks. [...]
[...] It looks like AMD may be making good on a promise made at the Red Hat Summit in May. AMD is working with the community to release a 2D-accelerated Linux graphics driver, with 3D acceleration being part of the future plans. The official AMD press release states: “In the coming months AMD also plans to accelerate efforts to address the needs of the open source community as well.” But what does this mean? Are they opening up the fglrx driver? Are they providing specifications? Are they just making a better binary blob so the open-source community will just want reverse engineer it more? [...]
A marketing guy who keeps his word?
This could set a bad precedent.
[...] Also here. [...]
I’m sorry I doubted you AMDTI. AMDTI were telling the truth ( http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/30/0337204 ) when I was slinging mud.