NVIDIA Linux Drivers: just unpractical.

Hello:
because of NVIDIA close driver source and probably a license agreement
which does not allow to distribute free binaries with Linux distributions,
using an NVIDIA video card on a linux system is unfortunately a real pain
to install.

Also NVIDIA drivers are usually very late and come several months (I have
seen 5 months) after new versions of Linux are released.

NVIDIA provides driver installation and procedures which are inadequate.
I do not know if NVIDIA competitors do better, because I have purchased
NVIDIA after NVIDIA video cards.

When I buy my next video cards, Linux "practicality" will be an issue, and I
will try to purchase a card which works out of the box as 3d on most
Linuxes distributions (art least the three ones) , with an automated
install, and easy upgrade to new kernels also.

May I suggest you do the same?
Thanks for the attention.
---

If Linux was as easy as windows everyone would use it because it is a better
OS,
unfortunately the powers to be, Gates and company keep it suppressed.

"AnonymousFC3" wrote in message
...
Hello:
because of NVIDIA close driver source and probably a license agreement
which does not allow to distribute free binaries with Linux distributions,
using an NVIDIA video card on a linux system is unfortunately a real pain
to install.

Also NVIDIA drivers are usually very late and come several months (I have
seen 5 months) after new versions of Linux are released.

NVIDIA provides driver installation and procedures which are inadequate.
I do not know if NVIDIA competitors do better, because I have purchased
NVIDIA after NVIDIA video cards.

When I buy my next video cards, Linux "practicality" will be an issue, and
I
will try to purchase a card which works out of the box as 3d on most
Linuxes distributions (art least the three ones) , with an automated
install, and easy upgrade to new kernels also.

May I suggest you do the same?
Thanks for the attention.
---

"BigJIm" wrote in message
...
If Linux was as easy as windows everyone would use it because it is a
better OS,
unfortunately the powers to be, Gates and company keep it suppressed.

Yeah.. Bill is sitting in his office, plotting how to keep Linux down.
Right. More likely, nVidia is limited by the smaller userbase that Linux
entertains. It makes more sense for them to devote most of their
development time for their largest userbase, which is Windows users. The
fact that they write Linux drivers at all shows they DO support the OS.

Why don't you write your own drivers? Linux *is* all about open source,
after all.

RF

On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 16:51:01 -0700, AnonymousFC3 wrote:

Hello:
because of NVIDIA close driver source and probably a license agreement
which does not allow to distribute free binaries with Linux distributions,
using an NVIDIA video card on a linux system is unfortunately a real pain
to install.

Also NVIDIA drivers are usually very late and come several months (I have
seen 5 months) after new versions of Linux are released.

NVIDIA provides driver installation and procedures which are inadequate.
I do not know if NVIDIA competitors do better, because I have purchased
NVIDIA after NVIDIA video cards.

When I buy my next video cards, Linux "practicality" will be an issue, and I
will try to purchase a card which works out of the box as 3d on most
Linuxes distributions (art least the three ones) , with an automated
install, and easy upgrade to new kernels also.

May I suggest you do the same?
Thanks for the attention.
---

It's this very fact that keeps me from using Linux. It's a
shame. I think the Linux OS, which ever distro you like, is a very
capable competetor, but it can never take on Windows as a desktop OS
if only users who know how to compile drivers, or write their own for
it to support the hardware they use are able to use it.

On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 03:37:07 -0500, Larry Roberts
wrote:

It's this very fact that keeps me from using Linux. It's a
shame. I think the Linux OS, which ever distro you like, is a very
capable competetor, but it can never take on Windows as a desktop OS
if only users who know how to compile drivers, or write their own for
it to support the hardware they use are able to use it.

It is great for a desktop OS as it is, for novice users it is easier
to install Linux and have their hardware detected automatically than
Windows. It is just gamers and power users that have a harder time. I
have used it a lot and never had to compile let alone write anything.
--
Andrew, contact via interpleb.blogspot.com
Help make Usenet a better place: English is read downwards,
please don't top post. Trim replies to quote only relevant text.
Check groups.google.com before asking an obvious question.

AnonymousFC3 wrote:

Hello:
because of NVIDIA close driver source and probably a license agreement
which does not allow to distribute free binaries with Linux distributions,
using an NVIDIA video card on a linux system is unfortunately a real pain
to install.

Also NVIDIA drivers are usually very late and come several months (I have
seen 5 months) after new versions of Linux are released.

NVIDIA provides driver installation and procedures which are inadequate.
I do not know if NVIDIA competitors do better, because I have purchased
NVIDIA after NVIDIA video cards.

When I buy my next video cards, Linux "practicality" will be an issue, and
I will try to purchase a card which works out of the box as 3d on most
Linuxes distributions (art least the three ones) , with an automated
install, and easy upgrade to new kernels also.

In that case I would advise you to buy an _old_ video board. Personally
I've never had any trouble installing the nvidia drivers on any version of
Linux I've tried, and I don't use any of the commercial distributions. But
if you want open source you're going to have to go back several generations
of technology.

May I suggest you do the same?
Thanks for the attention.
---

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

BigJIm wrote:

If Linux was as easy as windows everyone would use it because it is a
better OS,
unfortunately the powers to be, Gates and company keep it suppressed.

Uh, the only way "Gates and company" can cause Linux to be harder to use
than Windows is to make Windows very easy to use. They have no control
whatsoever over open source.

If you know of a mechanism other than "better marketing" by which they keep
Linux suppressed, please present it.

"AnonymousFC3" wrote in message
...
Hello:
because of NVIDIA close driver source and probably a license agreement
which does not allow to distribute free binaries with Linux
distributions, using an NVIDIA video card on a linux system is
unfortunately a real pain to install.

Also NVIDIA drivers are usually very late and come several months (I have
seen 5 months) after new versions of Linux are released.

NVIDIA provides driver installation and procedures which are inadequate.
I do not know if NVIDIA competitors do better, because I have purchased
NVIDIA after NVIDIA video cards.

When I buy my next video cards, Linux "practicality" will be an issue,
and I
will try to purchase a card which works out of the box as 3d on most
Linuxes distributions (art least the three ones) , with an automated
install, and easy upgrade to new kernels also.

May I suggest you do the same?
Thanks for the attention.
---


--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

Larry Roberts wrote:

On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 16:51:01 -0700, AnonymousFC3 wrote:

Hello:
because of NVIDIA close driver source and probably a license agreement
which does not allow to distribute free binaries with Linux distributions,
using an NVIDIA video card on a linux system is unfortunately a real pain
to install.

Also NVIDIA drivers are usually very late and come several months (I have
seen 5 months) after new versions of Linux are released.

NVIDIA provides driver installation and procedures which are inadequate.
I do not know if NVIDIA competitors do better, because I have purchased
NVIDIA after NVIDIA video cards.

When I buy my next video cards, Linux "practicality" will be an issue, and
I will try to purchase a card which works out of the box as 3d on most
Linuxes distributions (art least the three ones) , with an automated
install, and easy upgrade to new kernels also.

May I suggest you do the same?
Thanks for the attention.
---

It's this very fact that keeps me from using Linux. It's a
shame. I think the Linux OS, which ever distro you like, is a very
capable competetor, but it can never take on Windows as a desktop OS
if only users who know how to compile drivers, or write their own for
it to support the hardware they use are able to use it.

What's so hard about "make config; make; make install"?

Unless you want accelerated 3d the drivers that come in the box with Linux
work fine--if you want accelerated 3d the drivers that come in the Windows
box don't work any better than the ones that come in the Linux box--in both
cases you have to install nvidia-provided drivers.

The objection is a political one--nvidia refuses to divulge the source code
for their drivers or the programing interface for the chips--compiling the
drivers is not an issue because you don't have any source code to
compile--nvidia provides precompiled binaries, not compilable source, and
this is viewed by certain zealots in the Open Source community as being
eeeeeeeeeeevvvvvvviiiiiiiillllllll.



--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

RaceFace wrote:


"BigJIm" wrote in message
...
If Linux was as easy as windows everyone would use it because it is a
better OS,
unfortunately the powers to be, Gates and company keep it suppressed.

Yeah.. Bill is sitting in his office, plotting how to keep Linux down.
Right. More likely, nVidia is limited by the smaller userbase that Linux
entertains. It makes more sense for them to devote most of their
development time for their largest userbase, which is Windows users. The
fact that they write Linux drivers at all shows they DO support the OS.

Why don't you write your own drivers? Linux *is* all about open source,
after all.

He'd have to reverse engineer the instruction set for the chip first.
That's the big objection that the open source community has--nvidia won't
provide the information they need to write a driver.

RF

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

In article , AnonymousFC3 says...
Hello:
because of NVIDIA close driver source and probably a license agreement
which does not allow to distribute free binaries with Linux distributions,
using an NVIDIA video card on a linux system is unfortunately a real pain
to install.

Rubbish. Even I can do it.
Download packagename.run

Open up terminal.
telinit 3
log in as root.
cd to directory the downloaded file is in.
sh packagename.run

....follow the bouncing ball.

May need to fire up mc to edit the XF86Config file and change nv to
nvidia.

telinit 5.

Job done.


NVIDIA provides driver installation and procedures which are inadequate.

Only if you can't actually read.

I do not know if NVIDIA competitors do better, because I have purchased
NVIDIA after NVIDIA video cards.

When I buy my next video cards, Linux "practicality" will be an issue, and I
will try to purchase a card which works out of the box as 3d on most
Linuxes distributions (art least the three ones) , with an automated
install, and easy upgrade to new kernels also.

Non exist. All 3D cards use manufacturers own drivers. The bundled OSS
ones are quite frankly ****e.

May I suggest you do the same?

May I suggest you actually start to learn how to use Linux?

--
Conor

"Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most." O.Osbourne.