Fri, 30 Aug 2024 16:31:15 -0500 "David C. Rankin" <drankinatty@gmail.com> :
On 8/30/24 8:12 AM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
On the other hand, I have an old computer with an old NVidia card which has been dropped support by NVidia, meaning the proprietary driver will not work at all, and Nouveau works "more or less".
They will work -- it just takes putting them together. Now your point is perfectly valid - unless somebody patches and builds the package for the old nvidia card -- they do not work. But, my point is that nvidia still supplies the binary blob to enable those cards to work. You can simply download it.
By contrast, AMD does NOT provide any way to make the older cards work with fglrx -- period. No here's the old driver, you make it work -- no nothing.
It is funny to look back at these issues and marvel at how much time has gone by. The fglrx issue was probably somewhere around 2005-2007 just as compiz was hitting mainstream. To think that nearly two-decades have gone by, my kids that enjoyed the Tux Potatohead game are now all grown and out of the house.
Time really does fly...
-- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
Linux is about 30 year old boxes still running, my card is only 12! The issue isn't only purely technical, one aspect being that when a driver problem becomes this complex and complicated (regardless of the politics) handling it should not be dumped on the users. My other perspective hails from the *interminable hours* I've spent trying to download huge drivers with a slomo internet connection and having to try 4 or 5 times because the nvidia server would time me out. NEVER AGAIN will I tolerate another nvidia product in my house. But I do still have this GT640 fanless 8gb card with which I am 'otherwise' very happy, it does what I need or have a use for while AMD makes nothing comparable. I will probably give it away when I buy an AMD card one but it still has to work until then and even beyond for a new owner (probably one of my grandchildren).