On Nov 5, 10:05 am, "DFS" <nospam DeleteThis @dfs_.com> wrote:
> "With each new release comes new features, newer software, yet somehow
> things go backwards.
I did install the latest version of Karmic, just to see what the fuss
was all about. IT actually ran quite nicely. Of course, I was running
the generic open source drivers rather than the proprietary drivers.
> Free software is supposed to improve with each new release.
Ubuntu is one of the most aggressive about sending out software as
soon as it's reasonably effective in the "typical configuraton".
I've not been a fan of the Debian based releases because they
intentionally do not include ANY form of proprietarysoftware or driver
modules in their distributions. This means that Concentric, or the
Ubuntu community has to test the X.org proprietary drivers, which are
constantly being updated by the hardware vendors to support new
hardware configurations, on their own.
The problem usually arises when the fglx or gxl D3 graphcs drivers
have to be configured with the correct device and vendor codes for the
module to function properly.
Linux supports 64 bit, 32 bit with 64 bit addressing, and 32 bit with
32 bit addressing modes.
The hardware vendors have a pretty full plate these days. They have
to support Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, OS/X, Red Hat, SUSE, and
Ubuntu, and probably in that order of priority. Partly because this
is relative order of funding provided by the different OS vendors.
> Take OS X, which gets faster. Cleaner. Better. Sure, they have a
> much smaller hardware base to work on, but it can be done
That's not a small issue. Sun and Apple have both said that the
problem of competing with Microsoft in the general PC market is that
there are so many different hardware combinations. Vendors come out
with new devices every quarter, to stay more competitive. The new
drivers are often configurations of the existing drivers. Since the
proprietary versions are not available in source code form, the Open
Source community can't do much to help.
I remember when Vista first came out. I purchased a computer that had
an Atheros ABGN card. The Open Source driver worked fin for ABG
modes, but did not support the N (400 Mbit/sec) mode. The proprietary
version was supposedly capable of running the N mode as welll, but
unfortunately it routinely dropped the connection.
Doing research on the problem, I found out that they were having the
same problem with the Mac and Vista versions. It turned out that
there was only one person who knew how to program the HAL, but he had
been assigned to fixing the Vista problems. A few months later, he
fixed the Mac versions and about a month after that, he fixed the
Linux driver.
By the time Atheros fixed it, the "MadWiFi" driver had been replaced
with the ATH5 module, which was much faster and more reliable- and was
Open Source and didn't depend on this single person as a resource.
I would suspect that Nvidia and ATI are having similar issues. They
have to support XP for XP users who don't wantt to upgrade to Vista,
they have to support Vista, and they have to support Windows 7. In
addition they have to support a couple of versions of OS/X, and since
Red Hat and Novell actually fund drivers, they get priority in terms
of support.
And Poor Ubuntu is like the Cinderella story.
>. Ubuntu with the potential for thousands of developers surely
> can do a better job? Or at least, surely it could at least move forward??"
But when the PROPRIETARY drivers are locked up and under strict
nondisclosure agreements, possibly because of partial funding from
Microsoft, Apple, and Novell, it's probably unlikely that any of the
Open Source developers are going to get those special codes that let
these chips to faster and faster 3D graphics rendering. That's the
family jewels for a video chip manufacturer.
> http://www.linux-mag.com/cache/7600/1.html
> Sure it can: 1 step forward, 2 steps back. It's the Linux way.
Remember, Linux isn't a single product fully funded and fully
controlled by a single company and a single leader who has absolute
unchallenged authohrity, like Microsoft has. A Linux disttriution is
over 3000 organizations, many staffed by consultants, administrators,
and computer professionals who contribute part-time effort to Open
Source projects.
Many of these professionals are also restricted in what they can do
and the information they can share with these OSS projects. For
example, an IBM consultant might be able to share tips on Eclipse, and
might even write a plug-in or two, but they can't tell you the inner
workings of WebSphere.
FAQ
Search
Profile
Private Messages
Log in
Linux