On Thu, Dec 15, 2005 at 04:03:34AM +0000, cmetzler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: > It not only won't give you insane framerates, it won't give you > livable framerates on a lot of stuff. Well, remember that the card doesn't have a hardware geometry engine for transform and lighting. Of course it's going to be slow on a lot of cutting edge stuff. If that's the issue, see Lee's comment about free software and priorities that started this dicussion. > But don't bother mentioning any of > the above to Matrox -- they'll simply tell you that however free their > drivers may be, OpenGL is *not supported in Linux*, and any OpenGL > problems you have, you're on your own. That right there is a > showstopper. I bought a Matrox card *because* of the open drivers; > when their response to my hard lockup problems was "we don't support > OpenGL on Linux", I ended up feeling like I'd been taken. Heh, I think you misunderstand how free drivers work. You're caught up in the Windows model. Here's how it works (more or less) on Windows: 1) Hardware vendor writes a driver some API MS provides 2) You communicate with hardware vendor for support of the driver, which may or may not work well. Free software drivers work like this: 1) Vendor provides a sample implementation or hardware documentation to someone or some organization 2) That individual (who usually has nothing to do with the manufacturer!) produces a driver 3) You communicate to the hardware vendor and they say "WTF, we didn't write that dude...", AND THEY ARE RIGHT In the Windows case, I understand why you'd expect to get help from the vendor. In the free software driver case, I don't really see why you would expect that. -- Ross Vandegrift ross@xxxxxxxxxxxx "The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell." --St. Augustine, De Genesi ad Litteram, Book II, xviii, 37
