Dont Buy Matrox
 

[mod removed language, LQ Rule violation] Matrox sold us on their M9148 quad cards and now they refuse to release an updated driver that works with RHEL 7.
You have to scrap all the current cards and buy new hardware if you want to use RHEL 7.
Eff that. I'm going to Nvidia or ATI.

If you have an opinion about a product you should feel free to voice it.
However, you have violated two rules:
1) Using profanity.
2) Insulting a group of people.
Having just come back from Quebec in August I can tell you that most French Canadians are quite nice.

I agree on one part there MensaWater, but swearing/profanity isn't mentioned in the LQ rules.

But I'm not sure if insulting a companies employees, by mentioning their race, is hate speech. It's more just pointing out the fact that Matrox is from French Canada.

Sort of like saying,. ah 'damn those blue blooded Detroit Michiganders that built my shitty car,' which is different than suggesting 'kill ALL detroit michiganders that made my car!!'

Ill go out on a limb and say that although it's in poor taste, it's ok to complain about a product and it's creators, and it's ok to swear about it. And if you don't think it's allowed, go to any systemd thread here and read through it. Plenty of examples.

It's really up to the mods though.

Pretty much covers it.

Moderator Response
 

Please note the underlined portion of the below LQ Rules;LQ does have rules that should be followed by all.

Kind of borders on product liability. LQ should have a rule that limits comments that disparage a product or company. While you may have a right to be angry, I'm not sure where Matrox ever claimed they would fully support that version of linux for life.

The post is uninformative, arbitrary and capricious. (learned that on Perry Mason)


Not a professional topic.

I find this thread shallow and pedantic. (learned that from Peter Griffin)

I learned that Matrox is apparently still in business.

Moderator Response
 

Moved: This thread is more suitable in <General> and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

The standard X drivers aren't good enough?

The "mga" driver's OpenGL support was dropped from LibMesa a while back during their massive "cleanup" which excised a lot of older code. You may get some support via Gallium's llvmpipe or the software rasterizer driver, but it's limited at best, plus I think the G5x0 series was the highest supported chipsets in the Xorg drivers anyway.

Greetings
One thing this thread does bring up is the need for hardware awareness when using an "alternative" OpSys.

OK OK I know that Linux supports a wider range of hardware in general than any opsys in history, but this doesn't relieve an individual or a company from researching best choices for long term support. I actually find it nearly incomprehensible within the last 10 years that anyone would buy Matrox.... not because they suck because they don't, but they have not been a major player for a very long time. More importantly the only existing graphics system manufacturer that has well over 20 years of record of supporting even the "nicheiest" of OpSys (BeOS and OS/2 comes to mind) is nVidia. I really appreciate and root for AMD/ATi to continue to provide the only real competition (excluding ARM, of course but that is just beginning) to nVidia and Intel, and I'm glad both ATi and Intel have apparently seen the handwriting on the wall and decided to up their game as regards Linux. That said, any fool can see that this has been SOP for nVidia for over 2 decades and they continue to support more older chips than any other manufacturer as well. Especially in what appears to be some business environment (RHEL as opposed to CentOS or some desktop distro) bet with the house. It's safer.

On the other front "Please Joe, say it ain't so!". Will the entire internet become PG-13 ffs? Isn't there going to be any serious adult forums left that recognize the Internet is global and therefore host to countless communities, each with their own (ridiculous) standards about what is vulgar and/or obscene? Someone please stand up and address the logic behind why, for example in some communities "shit" is perfectly OK but in others it is vulgar while "crap", "manure", "maird" etc etc etc etc is not? It is the same thing!

IMHO, The exclusion of any word that describes the exact same thing as some other word cannot possibly be supported by any thinking person. To do so reflects an incredible arrogance and short-sighted, self-aggrandizing attitude that "your way is the only way". Please, when will the globalization effect of the Internet finally be realized and such prejudices put to rest? If we must be PG-13 then I have to ask whatever happened to "Sticks and Stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me"? Are we as a community so thin skinned and so frightened of being embarrassed or offended we are willing to fall down to mere "polite conversation"?

That said, I do recognize and respect that this forum is privately owned and maintained and therefore the owner can make any rules he chooses and generally I have to say he has been adult and fair-minded. I have only stated the above as a vote that he not bend to any pressure by any individual or group of individual to be any less courageous and thoughtful.

I doubt I'd have bothered commenting on the language if I hadn't already decided to comment on the bashing of "French Canadians". Unlike a previous poster I read it as an attack on all French Canadians rather than a comment that the makers were. (In fact why mention who the makers are except to somehow imply that was a reason for the issue?)

Personally I can curse like a sailor and sometimes do but there seems little reason to do it in writing. Clearly the OP was frustrated but it doesn't hurt to provide a little guidance on occasion.

Understood and largely agreed. However as the larger point is objectification and collectivization it might be worthwhile to consider if you "dulled your point" by bringing up the vastly smaller point of choice of language. If people start pointing out that whenever someone tries to reduce a large group into some pigeonhole, especially for the purpose of blame or denigration, they have just revealed their own ignorance and thoughtlessness and therefore any possible value it may have contained. It becomes a "write off". If we stand up against such over-simplification and objectifying of people we can contribute literally toward a better world, one of greater tolerance for minor differences.

I frankly don't see a similar benefit in fighting for word choice to describe an identical thing. Usually that is just prejudice, more of the same crap from which racism, class war, etc. springs and swirls.

Guidance is right and proper but there is such a thing as "stepping on a dollar to pick up a dime". Our choices define us.

I'm not sure this is correct. "Linux supports a wider range of hardware in general than any opsys in history, " I'd have to say that is false.

I was at a mega size company and for the most part we didn't sell any systems that were supported by linux.