ATI To open source code for RADEON 2D and soon 3D .

[XDS]

Did i miss somethin ?.


I mean I knew they where in trouble but are they in sooo much trouble they need people to start bailing them out ?

Is this a plea for help or is this a public stunt or what the hell is going on ?!

 

[ViRGE]

Publicity stunt. At this point this isn't a major commitment since there's nothing to really hold them to it, and it's only releasing specs for helping the OSS community make drivers - no current driver code is included. The schedule doesn't even call for them to release any of the 3D hardware specs until after they have released the 2D hardware specs, which will take some time. And there's a definite risk in NV seeing the 3D hardware specs if they haven't already, with S3/Intel not minding either (they can't directly steal things, but better information on things like the Ringbus could allow them to implement their own knockoff).

But in short, I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[Wreckage]

From the way I read it they are not going to open source their current drivers, but assist in the development of an open source driver. I would imagine it will have limited functionality as there is probably plenty of code that they won't\can't open source. Otherwise they would just release the source code right now.

Hopefully this will at least improve their Linux driver support. So it could be a good thing.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Wreckage
From the way I read it they are not going to open source their current drivers, but assist in the development of an open source driver. I would imagine it will have limited functionality as there is probably plenty of code that they won't\can't open source. Otherwise they would just release the source code right now.

Hopefully this will at least improve their Linux driver support. So it could be a good thing.

That and it gived validation to the Omega drivers.

 

[XDS]

Well as of this point , today sep 7 , have they released ANY source at all ?

And If they ever did , wouldn't that be an uprecidented move made by a chip maker or somethin ?

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: XDS
Well as of this point , today sep 7 , have they released ANY source at all ?

And If they ever did , wouldn't that be an uprecidented move made by a chip maker or somethin ?

They never said when, plus it's more than Nvidia does right now.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd

Originally posted by: Wreckage
From the way I read it they are not going to open source their current drivers, but assist in the development of an open source driver. I would imagine it will have limited functionality as there is probably plenty of code that they won't\can't open source. Otherwise they would just release the source code right now.

Hopefully this will at least improve their Linux driver support. So it could be a good thing.

That and it gived validation to the Omega drivers.

How do you figure that? Omega drivers use 100% ATI driver code.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: rbV5

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd

Originally posted by: Wreckage
From the way I read it they are not going to open source their current drivers, but assist in the development of an open source driver. I would imagine it will have limited functionality as there is probably plenty of code that they won't\can't open source. Otherwise they would just release the source code right now.

Hopefully this will at least improve their Linux driver support. So it could be a good thing.

That and it gived validation to the Omega drivers.

How do you figure that? Omega drivers use 100% ATI driver code.

There are various tweaks and additions to the basic driverset. Now if they open-source the code they can alter it more. So you may begin to see more drivers similar to the omega drivers which I found to be better than ATI's standard release when I was running XP.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd

Originally posted by: rbV5

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd

Originally posted by: Wreckage
From the way I read it they are not going to open source their current drivers, but assist in the development of an open source driver. I would imagine it will have limited functionality as there is probably plenty of code that they won't\can't open source. Otherwise they would just release the source code right now.

Hopefully this will at least improve their Linux driver support. So it could be a good thing.

That and it gived validation to the Omega drivers.

How do you figure that? Omega drivers use 100% ATI driver code.

There are various tweaks and additions to the basic driverset. Now if they open-source the code they can alter it more. So you may begin to see more drivers similar to the omega drivers which I found to be better than ATI's standard release when I was running XP.

There are already more "drivers" similar to Omega's and none of them including Omega's rely on writing a single line of actual driver code. They simply mix existing, various components from different driver sets and tweak some installation files.

Mixing various compiled driver components is one thing, writing new driver code is quite another.

I tend to think this is intended to help support cards on a Linux Platform where few resources are committed rather than somehow improving on the teams of engineers and resources that are committed to Windows Platform drivers.

 

[BFG10K]

There are various tweaks and additions to the basic driverset.

Those tweaks are usually nothing more than altered registry keys. They can't touch the actual driver code.

 

[Shamrock]

Cliff Notes:

ATI can't develop/write Linux Drivers, so they ask the community to do it for them.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Shamrock
Cliff Notes:

ATI can't develop/write Linux Drivers, so they ask the community to do it for them.

have they ever even tried to bother with Linux? It's such a small market really. One that most people wouldn't even give a crap about.

 

[natto fire]

I am a Linux n00b, but even I know to stay far away from ATI cards while running Linux. Maybe this is a step to convince people like me otherwise?

*sigh* I still remember my friends Ti4200 smoking my 9600XT at our favorite Linux game.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd

Originally posted by: Shamrock
Cliff Notes:

ATI can't develop/write Linux Drivers, so they ask the community to do it for them.

have they ever even tried to bother with Linux? It's such a small market really. One that most people wouldn't even give a crap about.

They try, but only marginally. It's clear that Nvidia is trying harder, which has made ATI look bad to the Linux community. That's why I still think this is a publicity stunt, they're doing this for boosting their reputation by announcing it, then slowly backing away as the time comes to implement the critical 3D features that would require their biggest spec secrets.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Captain Howdy
I am a Linux n00b, but even I know to stay far away from ATI cards while running Linux. Maybe this is a step to convince people like me otherwise?

*sigh* I still remember my friends Ti4200 smoking my 9600XT at our favorite Linux game.

Game on Linux = laugh

It's like the people who think they can run games on their Mac. They're so happy to pay $1500 for a new iMac that can play an old game like Doom3 at 50fps at 1024x768 with no AA. I don't even think they have options to turn on AF and AA in the driver.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd

Game on Linux = laugh

I'll have you know that Dwarf Fortress runs perfectly thanks to Wine!

. . .

. . .

. . . heh

 

[postmortemIA]

Ati wants open source community to develop drivers for them... for free...and under Ati's terms.. that is what it is.

 

[XDS]

Originally posted by: ViRGE

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd

Originally posted by: Shamrock
Cliff Notes:

ATI can't develop/write Linux Drivers, so they ask the community to do it for them.

have they ever even tried to bother with Linux? It's such a small market really. One that most people wouldn't even give a crap about.

They try, but only marginally. It's clear that Nvidia is trying harder, which has made ATI look bad to the Linux community. That's why I still think this is a publicity stunt, they're doing this for boosting their reputation by announcing it, then slowly backing away as the time comes to implement the critical 3D features that would require their biggest spec secrets.

So can we kill them now or later ?

 

[TanisHalfElven]

yoiu guys really don't know much about linux community.
if true this is a GOD send for most people.

the community wasnt open source drivers becasue
1. they can modify it thmeselves each time they change the kernel
2. they can include it in the kernel (eventually )
3. have distros set up peoples card right.

i am currently on a x800. the open source radeon driver is far supperior to the ATI one. it was setup automatically by ubuntu, compiz fusion was enabled by default and i had to do nothing. open source drivers for ALL radeon cards would allow that type of ease of use for every single ati card. it no big deal for a linux user to setup drivers using the binary but make an inexperianced person do it and they will swtich to windows faster than you can say ubuntu.

 

[natto fire]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd
Game on Linux = laugh

It's like the people who think they can run games on their Mac. They're so happy to pay $1500 for a new iMac that can play an old game like Doom3 at 50fps at 1024x768 with no AA. I don't even think they have options to turn on AF and AA in the driver.

I can assure you that there are plenty of great games for Linux. OpenGL is pretty much on par with DirectX except for that whole easy to code and massive support bit. Even if the gaming support for Linux is next to nothing, I personally still see no reason for a company to offer no support for its hardware when there is another willing to do that and more. This is coming from someone who has owned many generations of Radeons (7200, 8500, 9600 and 9800)

To even try to dissuade the argument of ATI's poor linux support to the fact there are not many 3d accelerated apps in Linux is just inane, and explains how ATI has coasted on shitty Linux drivers for so long...