[SlugBug] Happy new year... and video cards :-)

[Daniel]

Hi,

> I'm looking for something that at least supports 3D and OpenGL, and
> preferably isn't nVidia

I'm sorry, but you're wanting anything more than basic textured/blended
polygons, you're probably not going to find it.

For basic dark-ages OpenGL, open source and *stable*, you have two
options:
 - Intel Extreme graphics. The drivers were open sourced a while back
   to much rejoycing IIRC, but I have no personal experience with this.
 - ATI Radeon <=9200. Newer cards are NOT fully supported by the open
   source driver, but for what it's worth those that are supported are
   stable and of a reasonable speed. My laptop has a Mobility 9000,
   and it runs 3D via DRI + 'radeon' driver just fine (unless someone
   mentions 'suspend' in the general vicinity, at which point it
   panics ;))

If you want to compare the ATI closed source driver, and the nVidia
closed source driver, there is no contest. ATIs is terrible from
both a stability and a performance standpoint, though aparently
it's improving.
The nVidia driver, as much as I hate it, has been on desktop machines
running games with 6 month+ uptimes. It still does crash once in a
blue moon, though, so I would never use it on a machine I want to
feel comfortable about.

The open source 'nv' driver has half-decent 2D performance, so if
you're looking at running games, you could do what I did for a while:
use 'nv' in day to day use, and startx with the 'nvidia' driver
whenever you want to play a game. Of course, this means closing down
all your X apps...


Conclusion: 3D situation on Linux still sucks.
If you just want GL for Xgl/compiz/whatever, consider trying a cheap
ATI Radeon 9200. You can get a decent AGP card for <£20.
If you want Real OpenGL, you're stuck with closed source, sorry.

> The whole nVidia avoidance goes to the mainboard as well

Avoid nVidia motherboard chipsets. Unlike in the graphics arena,
there is open source supported alternatives that perform as well if
not better.
Yes, some nForce stuff has been reverse engineered, but regardless
I *try* not to support companies that will not supply open source
developers with hardware documentation.


Regards,
 - Daniel