> ATI released all the specifications for their cards: while still
> redistributing a closed source proprietary driver, they at least
> provided documentation for free software developers to implement open
> source drivers. Besides this recent news, for video-out there is the
> "gatos" project that has been very helpful in the past years. On the
> long term i'm sure we'll see better support for ATI cards in the
> future, for their 3d engine, shaders and tv-out.

I've got the same hopes as well, but, right now that's not there yet. In
the meantime, given the choice between nvidia's binary blob or ati's, I
would choose nvidia, as I've had consistently better experiences than when
I was running ati.

> Also Intel always provides open specs for its hardware and in
> particular the graphic cards have an excellend support on GNU/Linux.

Which again is great, but, they don't have cards that perform for what I
want to use my PC for.

> so the last misbehaving company left is really Nvidia and we should
> put pressure on them to respect consumers and their free choice using
> liberated operating systems.

Agree, nvidia do need pressure for this. They do seem quick to support
the linux community though with their binary blob, and do respond to bug
fixes/errors quickly -again not something I've seem ATI do in the past.

I agree though, from a freedom and open point of view, right now, intel
chipsets are probably the best bet.

If you need things like 3D performance *and* tv-out (for just TV I believe
there are intel options!) though, and until the free ATI drivers get
there, I don't see how I have much choice right but to get a nvidia.
Onboard intel chipsets will not give me what I want here.

Long term, it looks like nvidia are playing purely to the market and
proprietary forces. There are examples of things like tv-out not working
properly (particular overscan/underscan) under Vista if your card is
capable of HD, to try and prevent people getting recordable outputs of HD.
I don't believe a company that is operating that way will ever want or be
in a position to open source their drivers or information on specs etc
(agreements around HD tech might prevent them releasing drivers for their
latest card in that way).

What I'd *like* to see is intel maintaining it's open source drivers,
whilst stepping into the 3D market more.

I think it really does all come back to what you need/want the machine to do!

Dave

>
> ciao
>
> - --
>
> jaromil, dyne.org developer, http://jaromil.dyne.org
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