Status of ATI video acceleration support + freebsd port code

[Andrea Venturoli]

On 05/08/13 11:45, Tom Evans wrote:

> Nvidia cards are fully supported; the only feature currently not
> present in the proprietary driver is Optimus.
>
> Yes, it is a proprietary and closed source driver, but more
> importantly, it just works. X works, DRI works, 2D acceleration works,
> xv works, opengl works, xrandr works, vdpau (video offload) works.
> Save yourself pain and time and just go with nvidia.

I agree with you with only one caveat...

Right now I'm buying ATI, but I've had nVidia cards in the past.

The problem with closed source drivers is upgrades: at one point my 
Linux distribution (FreeBSD would probably be even worse) moved to a new 
X.Org; when porting their driver to the new X.Org, nVidia decided to 
drop that support for that card.
So I was faced with either:
_ stop upgrading everything and stay with an old system (probably with 
security holes);
_ spend some money to change my old, but working, graphic card (and 
possibly other components if you don't find a newer match);
_ move to VESA drive with no acceleration.

While I'm not saying this wouldn't have happened with an OS driver, I 
still think it's less frequent.

Just my 2c.

  bye
	av.