Re: [Trisquel-users] Free Software and 3D Graphics: nVida, AMD/Radeon or Integrated Graphics?

2012-07-02 Thread chris
The Intel situation is unfortunate although not terribly surprising. You have  
to remember to keep things in perspective. There are lots of advantages to  
GNU/Linux overall that puts Microsoft Windows to shame besides being free.  
Not everything should be about hardware (I know I know, sort of a weird thing  
for me to say). Hardware is only part of the equation though. The software  
that runs on top of hardware is really what ones after. If you value your  
freedom OpenGL 3 is certainly good enough. Besides that though for the  
majority of users on any platform there are many advantages to using  
GNU/Linux over getting the latest and greatest on Microsoft Windows.


I'd rather buy a system that respects my freedom that I can fully take  
advantage of than a system which does not.


I know none of the people here would ever touch Microsoft Windows although I  
will tell you that it runs terribly slowly for the majority of users. It is  
so bad as to be describable as unbearable (for those use to running  
GNU/Linux). I don't care how much more powerful the hardware one runs is it  
is unbearable for the large majority of Microsoft Windows users. The only  
reason some might say it's fast enough is that they haven't experienced  
GNU/Linux or free software.


When an Intel Atom with 2GB of ram outperforms a 6GB dual-core Microsoft  
Windows system at a fraction of the price you know there is something wrong.  
That is the situation I see almost every day. I work with a lot of  
ex-Microsoft Windows users who have switched to the Penguin Wee (the first  
generation $249 model based on Intel Atom- although there are also some  
Penguin Air users too). I get to see first hand how slow the systems are of  
people running Microsoft Windows. The one thing I can say conclusively is  
I've never seen a slow GNU/Linux system even with the latest updates  
(comparatively speaking). Until you can say the system is unbearably slow you  
haven't experienced a typical Microsoft Window's users system.






Re: [Trisquel-users] Free Software and 3D Graphics: nVida, AMD/Radeon or Integrated Graphics?

2012-07-02 Thread chris
I think maybe I should go into some detail here because clearly you aren't  
seeing what I'm seeing.


It's just an observation remember. If you look at the statistics it's  
something like 90% of computer users are infected. That's according the  
security industry. I'm not going to say this is an accurate statistic  
although I do believe it isn't far off.


And as far as how this came to be. What do you think slows down most  
Microsoft Windows systems? None of what I am saying is an exaggeration. You  
might argue this isn't the fault of Microsoft though. I'd then disagree with  
you though. It's Microsoft's design choices which have resulted in the  
general populaces inability to maintain a clean system.


It's also the result of proprietary software. There is more sharing of code  
on GNU/Linux and less bloat. If you stick a printer into a GNU/Linux system  
it just works. It gets detected, added, and setup in an instant usually  
(provided it is a properly supported free software compatible device). Try  
and do the same thing in a Microsoft Windows environment and usually the user  
has to install significant blot. Something that takes 5-10 seconds and is  
done automatically without the users intervention takes 40 minutes on the  
typical Microsoft Windows users system. If you don't believe me find a  
Microsoft Windows user's system and a copy of an HP driver CD. Go and try it.  
On average it takes 40 minutes. Now try and do this with a GNU/Linux system  
like Trisquel. While it's not entirely due to the lack of sharing code it's  
partially responsible.


I'm not talking about the people you interact with everyday either. Chances  
are they are well educated and slightly better able to comprehend what is  
going on. Any user on these forums is almost certainly going to be from a  
different segment of society than the majority. Technical skills put you in  
that segment. The majority though don't have that IT person to constantly  
tell them these things. So even your parents/friends/relatives/colleges have  
an advantage over the majority. They don't have someone updating the system  
for them. There are dozens of applications which need to be updated on  
Microsoft Windows which would be automatically updated on GNU/Linux (or there  
would be one screen and one button to update all the core applications).


This is an desktop / OS design issue that is always overlooked by those  
arguing GNU/Linux security. It's not the permission issue, root, etc which  
makes GNU/Linux more resilient. I'm not going to tell you those aren't of  
value. They are. It's just the ease of which it GNU/Linux systems are  
updated, integrated, and share code makes them better suited for the casual  
user.


This isn't to say there aren't other areas we need to improve on. There  
are... I won't even go there because the list is very very long. This  
community needs to coordinate more and work on developing business strategies  
to fund development that are not as dependent on large corporations.







Re: [Trisquel-users] Free Software and 3D Graphics: nVida, AMD/Radeon or Integrated Graphics?

2012-07-01 Thread yeeehi
There is a great review of various nvidia cards, including the 9500gt,  
comparing their performance on a variety of games and benchmarks using both  
the latest nvidia binary blob and the latest nouveau drivers here:


http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=articleitem=nvidia_june_2012num=1

As a general impression, the 9500gt didn't fare that much worse on nouveau  
than on the binary blob. With faster cards though, there were gigantic  
performance improvements using the binary blob over nouveau.


There is another nice, thorough article on the Phoronix site looking at how  
well the very latest HD 4000 Intel Ivy Bridge integrated graphics chipset  
works with GNU/Linux, too:


http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=articleitem=nvidia_june_2012num=1




Re: [Trisquel-users] Free Software and 3D Graphics: nVida, AMD/Radeon or Integrated Graphics?

2012-06-30 Thread whitehatsme22
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Re: [Trisquel-users] Free Software and 3D Graphics: nVida, AMD/Radeon or Integrated Graphics?

2012-06-29 Thread chris
I communicated a while back with various developers working on graphics  
drivers  distributions to the source for gaming/video testing and review.  
The conclusion of it all. The 9500 series is the way to go. Between  
stability, features, performance and price. I would not recommend it though  
over a new system with Intel graphics. The low end nVidia is comparable to  
the newer Intel graphics chipsets and in a number of areas better.


Here is the graphics card we are shipping:

https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/geforce-9500gt-1gb-pci-express-20-video-card-gnulinux

Note: 512MB is all you really need. For business reasons we are shipping the  
1GB version (the price difference is minuscule to non-existent).






[Trisquel-users] Free Software and 3D Graphics: nVida, AMD/Radeon or Integrated Graphics?

2012-06-26 Thread yeeehi

It is hard to know what to go with.

nVidia regularly release great working Linux drivers, but they are  
proprietary and closed source, I believe. The drivers work well with many 3D  
games. nVidia really do not try and support free software as a company, for  
some reason, so people say. (Linus recently said that they were the worst  
company to work with, for some reason.)


AMD/Radeon release open source GNU/Linux drivers. I believe these drivers  
would be free, but there is a small binary blob in them, which AMD/Radeon  
need for protection of some sort. AMD seem to be giving support to free  
software - they are meant to try and back the Coreboot project, but I haven't  
heard of them paying for any development there. Also, afaik, AMD don't  
produce mass market motherboards, so their support for Coreboot and a free  
BIOS might not matter. Also, this Coreboot support is not the issue I am here  
concerned about. From what I have heard, the non-proprietary AMD/Radeon  
drivers don't work too well with Linux games, which defeats the whole point  
of getting a fast graphics card.


The third choice, there might be others, I don't know, is to forgo a  
dedicated graphics card altogether and rely upon the 3D graphics integrated  
into the chipset on the motherboard. I don't know how good the latest  
integrated graphics are, but they wouldn't be up to playing the latest 3D  
games, I think.


What do you think is the way to go here? I would very much like to hear your  
opinions and reasoning.


Thank you!


Re: [Trisquel-users] Free Software and 3D Graphics: nVida, AMD/Radeon or Integrated Graphics?

2012-06-26 Thread mikko . viinamaki
Intel is the only company that supports free graphics. It's got a fully free  
driver. Works great with 3D.


AMD (ATI) has released parts of the driver under a free license. The fully  
free driver is not good. No 3D and artifacts.


Nvidia hasn't co-operated at all. However, there is a reverse engineered free  
driver that can do 3D.


So, if we only look at graphics cards, Intel is the way to go. But on the  
other hand Intel wifi cards are notorious for not working with free software.  
And replacing the wifi card with a supported card is tricky since many  
vendors have short whitelists of wireless cards they only accept and the user  
has to possibly crack his own machine (BIOS or the wifi card) to be able to  
use a non-whitelisted wifi card.  
http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Hardware/Mini_PCIe_slot_restrictions_on_wireless_cards


It is really hard to know what to go with...


Re: [Trisquel-users] Free Software and 3D Graphics: nVida, AMD/Radeon or Integrated Graphics?

2012-06-26 Thread Andrew Lindley
On 26/06/12 19:04, yee...@gmail.com wrote:
 It is hard to know what to go with.

Yeeehi,

Trisquel goes by what complies with the free software definition.  So
you can rule out ATI/AMD straight off as their 3D support is proprietary.

Intel integrated graphics are the best supported in terms of free
software drivers (AIUI Intel write them at least in part).  So if you
are buying then go for that first.

If you're stuck with on board graphics that aren't up to what you need
then 3D support that is adequate to some games is available in nouveau
(the free software nVidia driver) and good enough for some 3D games as
of Trisquel 5.5.  See this thread for a discussion and the place to
purchase a best value desktop card that is guaranteed to work.

http://trisquel.info/en/forum/graphics-cards-3d-acceleration-and-gaming

Free software games are a different animal to mass market games. You
have to think of them as a different way of getting your gaming fun. In
similar way to retro games being a different kind of fun to modern mass
market games.  They're still fun after all. Of course motivated by
freedom we are not interested in buying the non-free mass market stuff
which is the majority, if not all, of what you'll find in your local
game store.

Leny