On Friday 21 March 2008 11:58 am, Arun Khan wrote:
On Thursday 20 Mar 2008, linuxers-request@mm.glug-bom.org wrote:
Message: 2 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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It has been about a year+ (?) since AMD acquired ATI, and we still have "prop." drivers for the ATI chips.
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.
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.
For the majority of end users (open to embrace Linux) should we tell them to wait or get something that works today?
The usual devil and the deep sea decision :-(.
The specs for the older chipsets have not been released (for reasons best known to AMD). But specs for the newer chipsets have been released. One would have to check which chipsets before buying. Afaik only newer mobos not yet available in India (for desktops) have these chipsets. But then who needs 3d on a server.
While everyone would like 3D now, it would be a little longer with X, given that this is the first time that 3d engine specs have been released at all.