[Cialug] graphics accelerator

[Daniel A. Ramaley]

My current primary computer at home is about 8 years old. I've decided 
it is time to build a new one. Since i last built a machine it appears 
the graphics card industry has gone through quite a shakedown, leaving 
just ATI and nVidia. And as far as i can tell so far, both companies 
are opposed to open source. Are there any modern graphics cards with 3D 
acceleration that have open source drivers?

After the experience of running an ATI closed-source driver on my Dell 
computer at work, i do not want any proprietary garbage on my home 
machine. When using the proprietary driver on my work machine it is the 
most unstable Linux box i've seen in years; about once a week i have to 
SSH in and reboot it because the graphics card decides to wedge. There 
is an open source driver that i also use. When using the open-source 
drive i give up 3D acceleration and some 2D performance in exchange for 
the usual rock-solid stability that open source offers. I'm just 
wondering if there are any cards out there where such sacrifices do not 
have to be made. It looks like there is a group trying to design a card 
to work wonderfully with open source (Google "open-graphics" for info), 
but it looks like they are a few years from production hardware, if 
they ever get there.

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Dan Ramaley                            Dial Center 118, Drake University
Network Programmer/Analyst             2407 Carpenter Ave
+1 515 271-4540                        Des Moines IA 50311 USA