X.org, distributors, and proprietary modules [LWN.net]

X.org, distributors, and proprietary modules

Posted Aug 15, 2006 4:59 UTC (Tue) by kwink81 (guest, #33926)
Parent article: X.org, distributors, and proprietary modules

I think we are looking at this from the wrong angle.

Begging Nvidia/ATI to give us open specs/documentation will work just about as well as begging Microsoft to release Word under the GPL. Ain't gonna happen.

In the graphics areana, we need to treat hardware like we treat software. just like we can replace closed software with open software, we need to replace closed hardware with open hardware.

To that end, I suggest anyone who cares take a look at The Open Graphics Project(http://wiki.duskglow.com/tiki-index.php?page=Open-Graphics). It is an attempt to create an open/fully-documented 3D graphics card. If we can get this off the ground, we can ignore Nvidia/ATI instead of being chained by them.

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X.org, distributors, and proprietary modules

Posted Aug 15, 2006 6:24 UTC (Tue) by k8to (guest, #15413) [Link] (6 responses)

Not to be TOO much of a party pooper on this project, but I have been
eagerly anticipating it for around 2 years now. They are yet to make a
developer-only board available, and the project naming and discussion
seems moderate impenetrable. When I do think I understand it, it seems
they are getting bogged down in unimportant debates, as well as
hair-brained schemes like high end soundcards.

Let me know when significant progress is made, and/or when I can pay
money to acquire hardware that I can use to drive a computer monitor.

X.org, distributors, and proprietary modules

Posted Aug 15, 2006 14:58 UTC (Tue) by yodermk (subscriber, #3803) [Link] (1 responses)

I was under the impression that the developer board was Really Soon Now. And it looks cool, if you enjoy hacking that sort of thing.

I don't know how long it will take to make a graphics card after the dev board is out, but I'm guestimating around the beginning of 2008. If it happens by then I'll be happy.

Sucks to wait, but these projects take time. Until then there's Intel.

X.org, distributors, and proprietary modules

Posted Aug 17, 2006 11:23 UTC (Thu) by k8to (guest, #15413) [Link]

Originally I was hoping to buy a dev board, not because I am terribly
capable of significantly assisting, but because I wanted to financially
support the project and track the work in progress.

Unfortunately the original discussions of a possible devboard price were
not realistic, and 200-400 dollars ballooned into the current ~1000$
estimate.

I continue to hope for success.

X.org, distributors, and proprietary modules

Posted Aug 17, 2006 3:24 UTC (Thu) by rloomans (subscriber, #759) [Link] (3 responses)

"I have been eagerly anticipating it for around 2 years now."

It might seem like 2 years, but the project has only been running for about a year.....

X.org, distributors, and proprietary modules

Posted Aug 17, 2006 11:20 UTC (Thu) by k8to (guest, #15413) [Link] (2 responses)

http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=109831...

As you can see, the project is 22 months old. Sorry, I was off by two
months.

X.org, distributors, and proprietary modules

Posted Aug 17, 2006 20:24 UTC (Thu) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link] (1 responses)

And have they been promising a devboard for that entire time?

X.org, distributors, and proprietary modules

Posted Aug 17, 2006 22:40 UTC (Thu) by k8to (guest, #15413) [Link]

I'm not sure what you mean exactly, but yes they have been trying to
produce hardware for that entire time.