Re: Binary Drivers

Nikolaos D. Bougalis
2006-12-22T23:15:11Z

Robert Hancock wrote:
> Nikolaos D. Bougalis wrote:
>> Manufacturers design product as they see fit and offer it on the
>> market; I don't see nVidia or ATI thugs twisting your arm behind you
>> as you walk down the aisle of Fry's Electronics saying "buy this nice
>> card we made or I'll break your arm."
>
> If you need high-performance 3D they might as well be, as realistically
> ATI and NVIDIA are the only providers of high-performance video for the
> consumer market. Nobody else makes anything that competes, not even
> onboard video chipsets like Intel, SiS, etc.

My point was that nowadays most manufacturers, as a matter of course, do not
provide full details on how the hardware is programmed, and there appears to
be no significant market for high-performance 3D graphics with an open
specification.

I do not like owning a space heater with nifty DVI outputs, and that is a
fact I take into account when I make a purchasing decision for graphics cards
I will be using with Linux.

But I realize that ultimately, companies respond to markets, and not idealism
and know that ACME Hardware will publish the specs for their rocket-shoes when
the piece of the Linux rocket-shoe pie becomes lucrative enough. And because I
do, I try to change the market and educate consumers -- not browbeat companies
or turn the piece into a crumble by limiting what consumers can do.

-n