Nvidia hired a XFree86 developer to work on 'nv' under NDA agreements. It's not the best in the world and it's only 2-d.
Getting a video card that has drivers that are only 2-d is like buying a 400 dollar raid card, but only be able to plug in disks and not be able to actually use any of the RAID features.
We would have the ability to do this without 'nv' anyways with the generic 'VESA' compatability drivers.
So far to my knowledge the video cards that are aviable and mostly/fully functional are ATI 9200 and earlier cards, some VIA embedded-style cards, and some Intel embedded-style cards.
The most advanced ones you can get right now probably would be the Intel 915-based stuff. The actual Intel name for this is the 'Graphics Media Accelerator' 900, or GMA900. These are used in the newer Intel boards and lower end of the Sonama-based (next gen centrino) laptops (more expensive ones will use the seperate Nvidia and ATI cards)1.
As I understand it the specs were released to the DRI project people well in advance to the actual release date and the 915-based boards have had a lack-luster introduction and are just now beginning to get popular. (they support DDR2). I don't know for certain about this though.
Unfortunately I don't think you can buy these in a seperate card.
I've used the i915 drivers as a replacement for the i830 drivers for my old 855-based pentium4-m laptop and they worked great. Unfortunately I don't have access to a 915 board or a sonoma laptop to see if the newer 915 cards are any good.
They are suppose to be worlds better the the old Intel 'Blaster Extreme' crap, though. GMA are comparable to other on-board shared-memory devices like the ATI 9100 agp.
I think that the 9200 is still a bit faster since it has it's own memory.
As far as the XGI Volari stuff goes only the 2-d portion is for sure Free. People are not certain about the 3d portion.
<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2761">https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2761</a>
Also I've been paying attention to the OpenGraphics card project. Those guys that want to create a fully free video card.
http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics
So far they the card modelled in software and are working on developing features. Also the aim has changed somewhat.
Originally they were going to release FPGA chip based card. This is a feild programmable grid array chip, for those that don't know, which is programmable chip using special hardware. So basicly what they would do is build a PCB, stick some chips on it, and then by a FPGA chip from a big manufacturer and then program it and stick it on the card and that's what they'd try to sell to you.
However the business the main guy works for (a company that makes vid cards for very high resolution displays like used on medical devices) did marketting research and figured the best bet for profit was to target embedded device developers as well as the free software crowd.
So what they are doing now is going to release a early prototype board using a relatively expensive and low-yeild FPGA-based video card for developement and troubleshooting, as well as proof-of-concept.
Then after that part is over and they get a finalized product then they are going to release a cheaper FPGA card for enthusiasts to mess around with (so hardware geeks can have a hand at programming their own video cards, cpus, tweak everything for specific games and stuff like that) and then they are going to plop down enough money so that they are going to get a ASIC chip produced which they will sell to embedded hardware developers and also put on PCB boards to sell to free software folks.
So this should reduce the costs of the final product and increase performance as well as increase the likelyhood of profitability. They say that even if this project was to just break even then they would immediately start working on more advanced designs.
It would be cool in a few years for people to start cranking out completel0y free (free for freedom, not no cost, obviously) hardware for other devices too.
(and it's not just 3d card either.. they will be working on features for good power manangement (a must for embedded folks), and it will support very high resolutions (to go with the other 2d-only card that the company currently produces). Also they will release BSD-licensed drivers. draft specs are at
http://opengraphics.gitk.com/open_graphics_spec.pdf )
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