On Sat, 23 May 2009 09:36:56 +0200 François Patte wrote: > 1- My lab in my university has contracts with companies and I have to > choose in a panel of offers. For computers, it is Dell and Dell's offer > is with nvidia graphic. What can I do? Are you a student, a research assistant, a scientist, or a professor? Your approach and your "power" may differ depending on your position in the pecking order at your university, but basically you can make the case that proprietary software is making your job more difficult than it needs to be. For example, if you use a supported Intel video chipset (and ATI, now) there is no need to do anything at all when you install Fedora or Centos on a computer. The video just works right off the bat, and there are no "outside" drivers to worry about at all. There's also less to deal with when upgrading a kernel after the initial installation is long over and done with. I'm sure you can make a persuasive case to the powers-that-be in your world, if you want to. Comments in this mailing list should provide you with an excellent start toward a presentation. > 2- I am not a computer scientist, I use computers (like many people) and > I do not want to waste a lot of time to find out how to configure new > hardwares I have never seen before. I know how to configure nvidia > graphic cards because we have many computers with nvidia. All cards, up > to now, are from Geforce series and I did not know if Quadro series were > supported by fedora OS. See above. There's less involved in setting up and maintaining a supported Intel or ATI video chipset than there is with any Nvidia chipset. > 3- Many times we have to deal with hardwares using proprietary drivers, > nvidia is among them. But there are excellent alternatives to Nvidia that provide even better and more painless support! Why ride the second-class bus? > This is not the case for all hardware > manufacturers: who had never experienced a modem or lan or wifi card not > working on his laptop? Irrelevant in this instance -- we can discuss supported modems, lans and wifi cards in another thread if you have questions. > 4- Why not believe that one day nvidia will make open sources drivers? Sure -- when they do that then their cards may or may not be worth looking at. Until then, though, why ride the second class bus? Once again, I'm sure you can make a persuasive case for using open-source video chipsets in your lab if you wish to do so. If you require assistance with getting the ducks in a row, so to speak, I'm sure that many folks on this mailing list will be pleased to help you. -- MELVILLE THEATRE ~ Melville Sask ~ http://www.melvilletheatre.com -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines