Re: A narrowed down question about video cards

I demand that MSH may or may not have written...

Darren Salt wrote:
I demand that MSH may or may not have written...
[snip]
Here's what's seems to be the best description of the driver developed by
Suse for AMD:
http://wiki.x.org/wiki/radeonhd
[snip]
What's a TV connector?
An S-Video output, I should think.

"Separated Video abbreviated S-Video, and sometimes incorrectly referred to
as "Super Video"[1] and also known as Y/C is an analog video signal that
carries the video data as two separate signals,
[snip]
Isn't "TV connector" a very general term for something so specific?

Yes, but an S-Video output ‒ or, come to think of it, an HDMI output – is
what you'll get.

I wonder why it takes so long to write a driver with full features.
You could try writing it (or some other complex piece of software)
yourself. I think that then you'd understand.

Well, given my coding experience -- none -- I suppose Suse should do
better. NVIDIA, from what I hear, provide good Linux drivers.

That's as maybe, but there's a large binary-only component which I have no
intention of using. (I want to be able to run kernels to which they've not
ported their drivers, and I want to be able to report kernel bugs.)

Why can't Suse do the same?

You mean that they aren't supplying packages built from xf86-video-ati and
xf86-video-radeonhd? ;-)

Since Windows driver code is not written by Microsoft, what's the reason
it's kept closed if it's any use in writing a Linux driver?

Restrictions on distribution of code licensed from elsewhere is one reason.

The HD 3650 came out in January 2008(1), which is almost a year ago. If it
takes AMD years to provide a driver with all the features, it's no use
bragging about being open source [...]

AMD aren't providing the (open-source) drivers. They're providing
specifications; X and kernel developers are writing the drivers.

--
| Darren Salt | linux or ds at | nr. Ashington, | Toon
| RISC OS, Linux | youmustbejoking,demon,co,uk | Northumberland | Army
| + Travel less. Share transport more. PRODUCE LESS CARBON DIOXIDE.

/dev/brain: filesystem corrupt
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