AMD deciding _now_ what to do about Linux
 

I wrote to AMD regarding the state of ATI Linux drivers and the company's view of the Linux community. This is the response I got:

You can read the whole message here:
http://dotancohen.com/eng/linux_compatibility.php
Feel free to Digg or /. it.

Friends, NOW is the time to contact AMD and to let them know that we need their support. Please, write to them, call them, now is the time. Even for those who don't use AMD products, the precedent set here will most certainly echo throughout the hardware world. Take the 5 minutes and convince AMD that the Linux community cannot be ignored.

Note: I have posted this to several forums. Those who know me from those forums will know that I don't, as a rule, crosspost. However, I felt this to be important enough to cross the line and crosspost to the forums I felt would be interested.

AMD CPUs are good, but i could care less for having an ATI video card, Nvidia is the better card...

Totally agree... I would not abandon nVidia JUST YET...
Unless AMD came out with something outstanding... Radeon 2900 is not cool enough...
BUT... I WILL DEFINITELY switch to support ATI(since it is now part of AMD, and I do love AMD CPU) if ATI can supply nvidia equivalent performance card with a reasonable price...
Just an opinion though... :)

My letter to AMD:



To whom it may concern:

A lot has been in the media of late about your development and specifically your ATI video driver development. I note that a member of Linuxquestions.org (dotancohen) has posted about their resent contact with you and that you are going through some major changes at this time.

That is good news since you will note as I have posted in the Phoronix ATI forums I am not at all happy with you. You reacently gave Phoronix unprecedented access to your ATI video driver development path. Which I can say is aggressive and noteworthy. However as you will note here my reaction to your efforts is not at all kind and it is not for any lack of attempt on your part but just that the path you are on will not help you in my view. In the thread mentioned I agree with another poster that said that your development path "looks good but only on paper"

I do want much success for you and your company. While I am not a developer. I am a GNU+Linux user and that system was made of course by free and open source software development (FOSS). I however can not help but notice that your competitor in the CPU market has done great things in the video driver space with open source drivers. This has caused them to become the darling of the GNU+Linux community. This is a position that was once and in some cases is still held by you. As anyone knows open and free to develop drivers are mostly a PR move for any company. Better code however almost always appears because of said PR move.

As I noted in my posts you really need to go with FOSS or get pounded into the ground by Intel and or maybe others. I can guarantee that I will not wait and put up with these crappy drivers of yours.

The issue at stake is not who's card is better. The issue at stake is whether major hardware manufacturers will support Linux, or not, and how.

I am not a gamer, so I don't really care about the card that much, however the only reason why I chose NVidia over ATI on my notebook was precisely because of setting up drivers for the NVidia card. A lot more simple in my opnion. If AMD does actually do a little more with the ATI cards, besides better driver support, as well as improving how stable the drivers are, I might consider ATI again. I guess it is just wait and see.

Well, then now's the time to let them know that.

For all I care AMD can take their ATI division and let it rot in hell - drivers and all.
They ignored Linux long enough.Even hinting by them that they need to think about `the next step` is BS.
It`s not like there are no other vendors around.

I had nothing but trouble with ATI and wont buy any of their products again.If you need good closed source drivers use Nvidia.If you need good company supported open source drivers use Nvidia or Intel.

Let them know that you feel that way. Today. Even if you will never use their products, the support that ATI can provide to Linux users will only help encourage other hardware vendors to do the same.

If you think thats going to do anything thats fine but I never received even an acknowledgment from ATI over complaints about their MS driver.Now why would they treat Linux any better?

I basically posted here so that people on this board are warned about ATI.

They are going to try to make better drivers anyway - all of Hollywood runs on Nvidia because they use mostly Linux and those are not fx5200 cards they use there.
For sure ATI wants a piece of that.

Well, I did receive an answer from them. What department did you contact?

Whatever link was on the driver webpage back then.

By all means if somebody absolutely feels the need to use ATI - go for it.Just don't expect any wonders.
I mean what is 'have to review our Linux strategy' is supposed to mean?
If a company puts out statement like that I'd stay away from it anyway - not just because I am an ATIphobic but because thats the dumbest statement ever.

I mean what they are going to change? Support it half,completely or not at all? Will they finally put their real driver out after kidding everybody for years and losing sales or what.

I could care less if ATI / AMD gets their act together as I find nVidia cards far better in performance and their drivers are far better. I would be nice if ATI stepped up and which in turn would force nVidia to do the same but I am happy and always will be with nVidia cards.

Using a eVGA 8800GTS PCI-E card.

What's important here is not whether ATI is better than Nvidia or the other way around, but the possibility that a major hardware vendor will implement an open source model. If they are successful, others will follow suit, and you may benefit despite never using an ATI card.

Exactly my point, rhussey. Good job.