Dell Wants Better ATI Linux Drivers

Phoronix ^ | July 23, 2007 | Michael Larabel

[N3WBI3]

Dell knows it won't happen overnight, but along side wanting to ship audio/video codecs, Intel Wireless 80.211N support for Linux, Broadcom Wireless for Linux, and being able to ship notebooks and desktops with Compiz Fusion enabled, Dell would like to see improved ATI Linux drivers. At Ubuntu Live 2007, Amit Bhutani had a session on Ubuntu Linux for Dell Consumer Systems, where he had shared a slide with Dell's "area of investigation", which Amit had said is essentially their Linux road-map. Amit had also stated that the NVIDIA 2D and 3D video drivers were "challenges in platform enablement". Dell wants to offer ATI Linux systems, but first the driver must be improved for the Linux platform (not necessarily open-source, but improved). Dell currently ships desktop Linux systems with Intel using their open-source drivers as well as NVIDIA graphics processors under Linux. Amit had went on to add that new Dell product offerings and availability in other countries will come later this summer.

Last month at the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit, Google had expressed interest in having open-source ATI/NVIDIA display drivers.

[N3WBI3]

This is way OEM support was so important, Dell has the weight to get ATI and some of the other driver makers to come up with better Linux Drivers. With HP now looking like they are going to also expand their Linux offerings the days of few vendor released drivers may be coming to an end

[N3WBI3]

OSS PING!

[ShadowAce]

Dell ain’t the only one.

[N3WBI3]

Yea but the headline “’n3wb’ wants batter drivers does not garner much attention from ATI” nor would shadowaice wants ....

[ShadowAce]

LOL! You got that right.

[KoRn]

"the days of few vendor released drivers may be coming to an end"

Thank God!!

[HAL9000]

and being able to ship notebooks and desktops with Compiz Fusion enabled

If that includes the features that blatantly copy the Exposé functions in Mac OS X, don't be surprised if Apple slaps Dell with a big fat lawsuit for patent infringement.

[N3WBI3]

I highly doubt it kompose has existed for kde for years without a peep from Apple.

[HAL9000]

Are any major hardware vendors shipping kompose pre-installed?

Apple has generally refrained from taking legal action against open-source projects that infringe on their patents. But that could change if Dell start selling the infringing technology pre-installed on their equipment.