On Wed, 27 Oct 2010, Patrick Matth??i wrote:
Am 27.10.2010 23:32, schrieb Russell Coker:
On Wed, 27 Oct 2010, Pedro Paulo Argolo <jamer.ja...@hotmail.com> wrote:
needs better support video cards from Nvidia and ATI video boards
Intel. I had configuration problems because of that, and for a typical
user is a very embarrassing situation. ~: (
The change from "nv" to "nouveau" was a good improvement for my main system
(Thinkpad T61), 2D graphics performance improved noticeably although I do
occasionally get transient corrupted bitmaps. Debian is dedicated to free
software (which precludes the non-free NVidia driver from being in main) and I
don't want the security risk of running binary-only software on my important
systems.
Most desktop users also want to have some 2D/3D performance, or special
features like tv out, xvideo acceleration etc etc.
nouveau is a good replacement for nv, but still far away of being useful
for powerful desktop users.
So, buy a graphics card that supports the features you want rather than
one that doesn't. That's how the free market works. It is unfortunate when
you inherit hardware from others or otherwise don't have a choice in the
matter, but you get what you pay for.
I was also rather embarrassed when I bought a GeForce 2 back in 2002 and
discovered that Nvidia's idea of "source code" was a small bit of C to
interface to a binary blob. I'm boycotting them until they either provide
documentation or release a proper open source driver, and I encourage you
all to do the same. If you already own an Nvidia card, please poke them
about it, because they don't think enough people care.
ATI only partially misses out in that I only buy their hardware that is
old enough to be supported by DRI.
I am not aware of anything that stops a Debian user from using a binary-only
Xorg driver.
Not supported by us, officialy, they are also not on our installation
cds (users have to activate non-free by themselve).
Does Ubuntu or any other distro claim to support it? If you find a bug it
doesn't seem like they could do much more than tell you to take it up with
the manufacturer. It's not like anyone other than nvidia can support their
drivers, so if they don't want to support your favorite distro, that's up
to them to decide, and up to you to care about.
But, yes, it is unfortunate when you inherit hardware that is only
supported by closed source drivers/X servers. When will Debian start
supporting windows graphics drivers so I can use my 3Dlabs cards? ;)
(Honestly, I would be rather scared if they did.)
Ivan
