[CoLoCo] Fw: Re: [Fwd: Ubuntu Video Card Upgrading Questions]

[Kevin Fries]

On Mon, 2008-01-28 at 16:57 -0700, David L. Willson wrote:
> > > It seems I have two choices...
> > > 
> > > The ATI Radeon X1650GT AGP 8x 512MB @ $130
> > > (Suggested by David L. Wilson, thanks)
> > > or
> > > The nVidia Geforce 7600 GS AGP 8x 256MB @ $102
> > > (There is a 512MB version but I want to limited the cost below $150)
> 
> I don't know if "freeness" matters in this case, but there is no "free
> as in open-source" accelerated driver available for any nVidia card and
> there is little chance there ever will be.  There are two free software
> accelerated drivers for ATI [perf], and ATI claims (claimed) that at
> some point they'll be opening up their own driver.  And last, some guys
> are trying to build a liberated video card [OpenVGA].

I for one am not one of those zealots over open source.  I feel as long
as a good product is made available to be with the same level of
accessibility as I would have in a Windows environment I have no
problems with it at all.  To that end, I could care less if the NVidia
drivers are open or not.  They are made available to me free of charge
just as they are to Windows users.  And NVidia has proven commitment to
continue doing so.

I put NVidia and Adobe Acrobat in the same category.  Rather than
getting upset over a open source philosophy, I would rather do business
with them to encourage their positive behavior.  They treat every Linux
user with equal respect (nVidia more so than Adobe), and for that, I buy
and support their products.

Further more, nVidia has supported the Linux community willingly.
Nvidia gets the bigger picture that they are in the business of selling
video cards, that Microsoft can sell their own damn OS.  ATI has only
come on board because they got bought by AMD, who is a supporter of
Linux.  ATI has to do allot more to prove their sincerity to me.

Just my $0.02

-- 
Kevin Fries
Senior Linux Engineer
Computer and Communications Technology, Inc
A Division of Japan Communications Inc.