DVI output, ATI or nVidia

[alan]

On Tue, 26 Jun 2007, Lonni J Friedman wrote:

> On 6/26/07, Mario Rossi <mariofutire at googlemail.com> wrote:
>> >>    I've seen something with nVidia GE 7XXX or GE 8XXX.
>> >>    Alternative is ATI 1650SE
>> >>    Or should I go for one Intel integrated?
>> 
>> >Yes.
>> 
>> >Intel integrated + ADD2 DVI card + "intel" xorg driver
>> >= open source solution.
>> 
>> >The Intel driver is open source, not a binary blob.
>> 
>> 
>> Thanks.
>> You mean that the open source driver for Intel card has a much better
>> support than the open source driver for ATI and nVidia.
>> 
>> I think I will investigate again and look for the one you mentioned.
>
> Granted, I work at NVIDIA, so my opinions are going to be slanted
> here, but I don't see how one defines support as better in one driver
> versus the other unless you've got some written contract guarenteeing
> a particular level of support.

"Support" in this case means "I have source and can fix it if I need to". 
It is not obscured by a large binary blob that the user cannot touch. 
Support contracts have little or nothing to do with it.

My problem with the Intel hardware is that it is damned hard or impossible 
to get for some environments.  You can't just go down to the store and buy 
an Intel video card.  You either replace your motherboard and/or system 
and buy something that has an Intel card inside.  (And if you want/need an 
AMD64 you are just screwed.)

Of the closed source video card vendors, nVIDIA does a better job 
supporting Linux in my opinion.  (They at least attempt to support all of 
their currently shipping cards, unlike ATI.)  Although I am still abit 
pissed off about the sudden drop of support for the 440go in the supported 
drivers.  (Replacing a video card in a laptop is not a viable option 
without buying something like Alienware or buying a new laptop.)

-- 
"ANSI C says access to the padding fields of a struct is undefined.
ANSI C also says that struct assignment is a memcpy. Therefore struct
assignment in ANSI C is a violation of ANSI C..."
                                   - Alan Cox