On Friday 21 Mar 2008, jtd wrote:
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:22:50 +0530 From: jtd jtd@mtnl.net.in Subject: Re: [ILUG-BOM] [OT] Avoid Intel motherboards
On Friday 21 March 2008 11:58 am, Arun Khan wrote:
On Thursday 20 Mar 2008, linuxers-request@mm.glug-bom.org wrote:
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:18:11 +0530 From: jtd jtd@mtnl.net.in Subject: Re: [ILUG-BOM] [OT] Avoid Intel motherboards
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AMD is any day a better bet as far as drivers go. They have opened the specs to the cpu, chipset and the 3d graphics engine as well. Only a matter of time before you have full 3d support on all AMD chipsets.
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About 18 months ago, when I was researching Linux compatibility for a notebook purchase. Intel chipset based models were the best bet.
All major Linux distros - everything worked out of the box (WiFi, 3D graphics).
Afaik the intel chipsets have relatively pathetic 3d.
Maybe for the power user *but* for the average desktop user, the out of the box compiz-fusion 3D experience is plenty. I have not seen any discernable difference compared to ATI or NVidia (prop. drivers). Other posts have similar comments.
Whereas on a HP AMD Turion notebook of same vintage (ATI chipset), even today I have to opt for downloading prop. drivers to get full 3D.
A dell laptop with AMD turion worked out of the box with etch about 8 months ago.
2D or 3D? Which ATI chipset? In my case, it is ATI Radeon Express 200M. I have no issues with 2D. Indeed, most Linux distros install on it. To the best of my knowledge, even today I have to download ATI prop. drivers to get 3D support. It is the only way to get compiz-fusion working on it :)
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The specs for the older chipsets have not been released (for reasons best known to AMD). But specs for the newer chipsets have been
The reason is on their web site http://ati.amd.com/products/catalyst/linux.html#4
released. One would have to check which chipsets before buying.
Most Linux'ers do check for compatibility but one cannot expect the average end user to break their head on such issues. For clients (office desktops), I suggest hardware that has the most "out of box" drivers in the current Linux distros, not something that will have support in the future. IMO, Intel chipsets have an edge over AMD.
Afaik only newer mobos not yet available in India (for desktops) have these chipsets. But then who needs 3d on a server.
Great, the latest GPUs from AMD will have "out of box" 3D drivers (full functionality compared to windows drivers) in the Linux distros released in the future but the poor souls who have earlier ATI/AMD GPUs still have to deal with prop. drivers. Perhaps this is OK for a onezy or twozy desktops but to support several desktops this could be a nightmare.
Agree, don't need 3d on servers (even for MS Windows server edition) but it is the mobo manufacturers who are putting it - maybe the incremental cost between a generic and a 3d chipset is marginal at their volumes.
While everyone would like 3D now, it would be a little longer with X,
Now - yes, absolutely. For Linux to grow on the desktop segment, this is a must. I have demo'd compiz-fusion @ colleges, to fellow passengers on flights and trains and they have been wowed. At least, those individuals are now aware of a Linux desktop.
given that this is the first time that 3d engine specs have been released at all.
First time by AMD - their competitor has an edge on this.
Case history - 2 months ago a friend bought a high end Sony VAIO notebook (intel chip set) - installed Debian and everything worked out of the box (3D, Webcam, WiFi, card reader, bluetooth) - he is a happy camper. His earlier notebook (mobo crashed) was AMD64 with SiS chipset (no 3d support at all) and he had to use ndiswrapper to get his WiFi working. For the new purchase, the competitive notebooks with AMD Turion either had ATI or NVidia GPUs requiring prop. drivers for 3D.
I evaluate the best "out of box" driver support be it AMD or Intel and go with it.
-- Arun Khan