ATI Needs Linux Beta Testers
A reader pointed out that ATI’s Matthew Tippet posted the following request at the Rage3D message boards:
I am looking at getting some more beta testers on the Linux beta program. I am looking for people that have a particular mix of hardware and/or a particular mix of software/development skills. So… Using this thread, can you put together why you think you should be on the beta program, providing justification against how you can provide value to the beta program based on some of the following technologies… x86_64 (either AMD64 or EM64T)
GLSL
XOrg In particular I am interested in hearing from FC3 users who have x86_64. I will monitor this thread for a week or so, and contact the people who have been selected.
December 28th, 2004 at 4:03 am
Ati sucks. They can never be able to work out working driver for their card. I had Ati two times and every time I had something that didn’t work. After I bought Voodoo and then nVidia I have had any problems with my 3D accelerator.
And I think that Ati users should change too.
December 28th, 2004 at 6:15 am
‘Hardcore’ Linux gamers, or any worth their salt, will already be using Nvidia cards (the only realistic option).
Generally, the majority of people with new ATI hardware on Linux will be Windows users ‘trying it out’. (Not neccessarily the best beta testers due to lack of experience with Linux).
Save for that there will be the ‘fringe’ group of die-hard ATI fans who are buying new ATI hardware for use with Linux but their number is *probably* small.
Unless, of course, ATI would like to supply free hardware for beta testing?
December 28th, 2004 at 6:15 am
ATI wants more testers too help develop there Drivers. And It is a good thing.
I’ve been with Nvidia since voodoo had been sold out. And I’ve allways looked to see what ATI had to offer at that time.
I would like more options (ATI, Nvidia, Matrix) next time I buy a NEW video card. And this looks to be a good start.
December 28th, 2004 at 6:25 am
I am volunteering to beta test ATI’s linux drivers.
Specs:
Motherboard: nVidia nForce 3
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3000+
OS: Fedora Core 3 x86-64
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9600 XT
RAM: 512MB
December 28th, 2004 at 8:13 am
I’ll find my old Radeon 9100
P4 1.8
Asus MB
512 MB RAM
Gentoo linux.
December 28th, 2004 at 8:18 am
I still have a 9100
P4 1.8
512MB ram
Asus MB
Gentoo linux
December 28th, 2004 at 8:34 am
If it’s binary only there’s nothing to develop.
December 28th, 2004 at 10:03 am
I’m interested in beta testing the new drivers. I just bought an ATI card hoping that it wouldn’t be as bad as rumors told and/or ATI would eventually make good drivers. I play old games so the performance is almost enough (much worse than gf4 ti4200 though) but xorg 6.8 not working was worse… I’m very happy to hear my trust in ATI wasn’t in vain.
So current specs of my old trusty (I’m going to buy an amd64 system soon, this video card issue will affect the schedule for sure)
CPU: AMD (thunderbird) 1Ghz
Video card: ATI Radeon 9600 Pro
Distro: Debian sid
I’m software developer with several years of experience in linux usage.
My junk mail address:
alderamin (at) jippii (dot) fi
December 28th, 2004 at 10:07 am
I could help beta test the drivers. I am a programmer doing opengl so glsl is nice.
Running slackware on an x86 processor.
andfol [alfalfa] math (dot) net
December 28th, 2004 at 10:16 am
Save it for the real thread :)
You aren’t supposed to apply for the beta-test in this forum, but in the one linked in the article …
December 28th, 2004 at 10:54 am
ATI has been blowing smoke at us for a while, thinking we are satisfied with vague promises and lies. Well, we bloody well aren’t. Lets see what they come up with, but to be honest, I think its going to be the same old story all linux gamers are all too familiar with: too little, too late.
We’ll see.
–SD
December 28th, 2004 at 2:30 pm
Before i upgrade to a radeon i use a matrox g440 video board. the nice thing whit matrox is that all 2d and 3d stuff are in the dri. Only somme feature that most dont need are in a optional close source lib. this model is great. every distro get you open gl aceleration out of the box..
Unfortunatly, matrox is out of the gaming market now. So i got the best ATI card that was suported by he DRI.
Why cant ATI just send the code to the DRI. keep the propriatery crap(tv in/out?) on a optional lib and let me upgrade to a new and shiny radeon that will work out of the box!
on my linux system i never download a single driver. every thing is in the kernel source. what cant be (use space x11 code) sould be in the x11 server source.
Wake up ATI, this is the linux way of computing.
–Bob
December 28th, 2004 at 3:01 pm
If ati wants beta testers why the fuck don’t they release their drivers? Why the hell do I need to sign-up to be a beta tester? Have they learned nothing from Open Source? Release early, release often… and let everyone play with it!
I say support DRI which has much better chance of getting decent quality drivers that actually _work_ and that are supported on all platforms and distributions. Fuck ATI’s clueless management.
December 28th, 2004 at 6:14 pm
Well,
If you are a Linux gamer, and you use ATI, then I think you need to reinspect your qualifacations for the label… go buy a Gefore 6800…good drivers…better card…
December 28th, 2004 at 6:57 pm
Face the facts: If you want to play games and you want to run Linux you’re going to be running proprietary drivers. Suck it up and deal with it. If running OSS drivers is more important to you that the games then feel free to run whatever POS card has drivers in the DRI, just don’t expect to be playing anything cutting edge on it. Those are the realities.
I’d of thought you people would have learned something after the constant bitching over Nvidia’s drivers when they were new. Don’t like it? TS, that’s how it is.
December 29th, 2004 at 3:21 am
I would argue that a true BSD/GNU/OSS driver is the way to go, but since i guess that is difficult since much of the tech. is NOT ATI’s own but probably sub-contractors and these deals probably has their own non-disclosure agreements.
Since this is probably the case I argue that A driver for Linux is MUCH better than NO DRIVER!
But ATI should make an effort to release ALL code that they can legally. This would help the effort to create a free driver. The code they can’t release they should distribute in a library, thus enabling everyone to use it.
This would also benefit ATI since the driver would be of higher quality and more people are likely to choose their Hardware if there is a OSS driver. Since most of us prefer to use OSS software to Proprietary.
December 29th, 2004 at 11:06 am
Regarding a repeating theme in this thread:
Putting ATI’s proprietary code into a binary-only library does nothing for GPL’d software, such as linux device drivers. GPL’d software may not depend on closed-source libraries, with the exception of libraries distributed as integral system components.
Not to mention that libraries live in user-space and drivers live in kernel-space. Kernel-space does not make calls to user space: user-space makes calls to kernel-space.
In any case, I’m sure ATI has looked at all of this, and I understand they are the most cooperative video company, with respect to DRI.
I have no vested interest in ATI, and am an NVidia user today, but I would like to see a wider ranger of viable options for accelerated linux graphics.
–Parity None
December 30th, 2004 at 9:08 am
If we accept the fact that companies only care about ip&patents these days(and they do) and therefore the facts of life that drivers will be closed source - then the next question is…
If ati is a bed buddy of microsoft ( see history of directx and direct3d9 and xbox2 ) how will buying ati hardware benefit linux in the future?
So please all you people in this forum STOP DREAMING about real linux support from ati.
When their master m$ tells them to stop supporting linux you will have a useless doorstopper and will have to go out and buy an nvidia.
How hard do you think it will be for ati to do this?
fire a team of 2 coders - 2.2 seconds.
How much does it cost ati to “support” linux?
120,000 a year for which they probably see as lost money.
What is ati’s history on linux?
1 ) promise after promise after promise after promise.
2 ) no driver - helping dri - not helping - closed driver - …[future]
December 30th, 2004 at 4:41 pm
Well I hope ATI gets the true feeling of the Linux Community-go fuck yourself. Why should we be ever greatful for a company that has treated us like dirt? Why should we openly welcome a brand that laughed and laughed at us? Why in the hell should I sign up to beta test_IF_I had an ATI card I would throw it away and buy an Nvidia, but since I have one more money in my pocket!
Besides people can gripe all they want about Nvidia having a monopoly, guess what? They have been more helpful than anyone else.
January 1st, 2005 at 4:02 am
Sadly they didn’t ask for PPC testers…
January 7th, 2005 at 10:07 am
Hi I really really want to beta test driver for ATI Radeon.
What I got:
Acer 4501WLMI,
ATI Radeon 9700 128mb
Widescreen
Fedora Core 3
Xorg 6.8.1
Best regards,
IceMAN
January 21st, 2005 at 5:03 pm
ati Sapphire radeon 9600 atlantis pro 256 mem and updated asus mother board