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Sammit drivers


Stremik

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From what I understand XI writes Linux drivers for companies that refuse to do it themselves, and writes custom drivers for companies or studios that need them. They are supposively very expensive. I was reading the 3D labs board when the VP series cards came out, and I guess 3D Labs wasn't supporting LInux (not sure if that's still the case) people were very upset about having to pay for Linux drivers from XI. This is the main reason I didn't get a Wildcat VP.

Never tried threir drivers and hopefully I'll never need them.

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Actually they also write drivers with OGL support for consumer cards too.

Like Radeon and there probably two dosen more cards from ATI that are supported.

But I agree. Charging for Linux drivers is a rotten way of making money.

I wish I could find a patch. ;)

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That's what I meant by "companies that refuse to do it themselves". ATI didn't start writing their own linux drivers until recently, so if you wanted decent hardware acceleration on your consumer ATI card under linux, you had to go to XI.

I don't think charging for drivers is rotten. These guys saw a hole and decided to try and make some money filling it in, good for them.

What's rotten is that so few companies even bother to try to support Linux, and when they do it's a token effort. Take ATI. They have their own Linux drivers for their newer cards now and they work decently, but deffinitely need polishing. ATI hasn't updated these drivers in almost 4 months now (last I checked about a week ago). I can't understand why 3DLabs seemingly refuses to support Linux themselves at all when high end 3D, DCC, and VIsualization is their core market, and sizable chunk of that market seems to be gravitating towards Linux.

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  • 2 years later...

I've used them because I have a 3DLabs Oxygen VX1 at home and hate the idea of using windows.

I used them mostly about 5 years ago, and they worked fine. I'm just reviving that old machine again now and I just downloaded their new demo of the Platinum version of the drivers for Linux. It's the most expensive one of the bunch, but it's only $89. That seems reasonable since they actually wrote it and saved me the hassle of figuring out how to write one myself (which I certainly don't know how to do).

I'll let you know how it goes...

Dave

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I've been running the demo for a couple of days now. It's hamstrung to only run for 15-25 minutes, then it crashes your X server. But you can restart it over and over again, while you're testing it. After having some fast nVidia boards at work, I'm not really satisfied with my old Oxygen VX1 and my old machine anymore, so I don't think I'm going to spend the money to bother with this one. I'm going to look for a new machine with a "modern" graphics card. One that has linux support available.

Dave

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  • 2 weeks later...
Hey Dave,

Yeah, please get a new machine with a more recent graphics card. You know you can. ;)

Cheers!

steven

20690[/snapback]

Yes, I know I CAN. This is for home though and I have to balance feeding four kids and my wife, paying the mortgage and gasoline bill, with the speed of a new machine. It'll happen, just when is the problem. I've got fast machines at work, no problem.

Dave

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