[NTLUG:Discuss] CPU History

[Rick Cook]

On Wednesday 15 January 2003 15:22, David wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 13, 2003 at 09:37:50AM -0600, Kyle Davenport wrote:
> > I've never had a problem with the couple of 3Com's I've used.   I have to
> > say I never expect any official company support for anything.  It's like
> > an extra present that we can get drivers from Nvidia, for instance.  
> > When
>
> It's no present from Nvidia, or at least, not any present I want.
> Nvidia's drivers are free beer, but not free speech.  Without the
> technical details of programming their chips, we are forever tied to
> Nvidia.  Our graphics run only at their convenience.

And it is typically not convenient at all for them if you use non-Intel 
compatible processor architectures.


>
> I don't expect official driver support from hardware companies.  I do
> expect that they will release full technical specifications of their
> cards, so that we are empowered to support ourselves.

And support whatever processor architectures we might like.


My Power Macintosh G4 Dual had to have its nVidia GeForce 4 replaced to get 
even rudimentary X graphics support. The ATI Radeon 8500 that I have in its 
place is now supported very well.


Rick