ubuntu-gaming team mailing list archive

[Joe Sloan <joe@xxxxxxxxxx>]

That's IMHO a rough oversimplification.

Nvidia has always had good performing, albeit closed source, linux video 
drivers. I've bought a lot of nvidia cards over the years and I like 
them for gaming. While their drivers are closed source, they have always 
been very quick to update them and they track kernel updates very quickly.

ATI has historically offered half hearted linux support and closed 
source video drivers for linux, very late, lacking features and 
performing worse than their windoze drivers. Their recent opening up to 
linux will help matters but it is taking time. In the long term they may 
be a good choice.

Intel graphics have generally not been as high performance as nvidia or 
ati, but they have the benefit of "just working" out of the box, with 3D 
support in the official linux kernel, with open source drivers based on 
intels published video card specs. They do work nicely for desktop 
effects and some gaming. The folks at intel are in the process of 
revamping the video drivers, and ubuntu 9.04 users with intel video are 
suffering with a half baked driver situation - however by 9.10 the intel 
video situation will be greatly improved. Even with 9.04 there are 
repositories for kernel updates and intel video drivers, which 
dramatically improve the video performance.

So, who hates intel? They seem to have done fairly well by linux, 
compared to most firms.

Joe

Danny Piccirillo wrote:
> I was wondering about the state of open source graphics drivers today 
> and which companies are the most friendly. My understanding, and i'm 
> hoping that you can either confirm or correct this, is that: 
> NVIDIA has linux drivers, but none of them are open (there is a 
> project for that but nvidia doesn't offer open drivers themselves). 
> Intel has open drivers, but we all hate Intel for one reason 
> <http://pinstack.blogspot.com/2009/01/efi-hidden-threat-to-computing-freedom.html> or another 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Configuration_and_Power_Interface#Criticism>.  
> AMD/ATI have opened everything, but it's taking us some time to catch up