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VIA releases open source Xorg driver

laforge.gnumonks.org — VIA has just released a open source Xorg driver for their integrated graphics chips on their linux.via.com.tw portal.

Who dugg this? Made popular Sep 1, 2008

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  • jacekpoplawski, on 09/01/2008, -4/+32Thank you VIA. You joined team of Linux friendly companies. Now only nVidia is evil.
  • tian2992, on 09/01/2008, -0/+25Wow, great news. Now to get it on the Xorg release branch!
  • inactive, on 09/01/2008, -1/+24There is a lot to be done to harmonize the current FOSS driver landscape for VIA's graphics products.
  • noisymime, on 09/01/2008, -0/+19Sure this is a step forward, but its not a big step. The most important thing to realise is that this is NOT the source code of Via's existing binary blob. It is a new driver that is even more limited than the existing OpenChrome driver.
    FTA: "...this driver (as opposed to VIA's proprietary binary-only Xorg driver) has no support for 3D, hardware video codec or TV encoder support"

    Via has been screwing the FOSS community for a LONG time now, I'll believe they've changed their ways only after they've released some helpful documentation.
  • zeebo, on 09/01/2008, -1/+20Nvidia really needs to step up with a free driver capable of 3d graphics soon. Otherwise I'll have no reason to buy from them in the future.
  • RyeBrye, on 09/02/2008, -1/+18No. VIA is not open source friendly. Their open source driver doesn't have any 3d acceleration or anything worthwhile.

    ATI is just as evil as nVidia with regards to their binary blobs
  • noisymime, on 09/02/2008, -0/+13No, via haven't yet joined the linux friendly crew. They've release no documentation to assist in driver development and the only code they've released is basically the same as the existing community driver, OpenChrome.

    Via have a horrible reputation for making big open source announcements then delivering very little. There's not much in this release that makes me excited and I've been waiting for years
  • Gatesgamer33, on 09/01/2008, -1/+12I think that the current situation here is rather funny, because you are commenting about his grammar, while you type in "all caps"
  • inactive, on 09/02/2008, -0/+9This seems like the 2D equivalent of the nv and ati drivers AFIAK. Basically the "you can now use X11" drivers
  • DoXiD, on 09/01/2008, -1/+9Awsome. Finally some progress is picked up and developed and hopefully this will be a steady development towards a active integration with say the new HD cards and such that is coming out. Only reason why i sometimes choose other drivers and modules is that well i love my hardware acceleration in the new ATi products : )

    Awsome work.
  • tnoy, on 09/02/2008, -0/+8The FOSS drivers for VIA's video products are below par, and need significant improvements.
  • noisymime, on 09/02/2008, -0/+6This announcement isn't as important as people are making out, but here's the reasons (At least in my opinion) why people care:

    Via have for a long time promoted their graphics chipsets as being supported by linux. Whilst technically true, the binary only drivers that Via provided were of particularly low quality. In some instances they had significant security vulnerabilities and even at the best of times were unstable and their features did not match the equivalent Windows driver. Basically most people didn't consider that Via had delivered on what they promised.

    The release of an open source driver allows people who actually care about linux to more easily work on these drivers and improve them to a reasonable level. The reason I say that this isn't as important as people think is that the source code they released is not for the binary driver they had been distributing and does not really provide anything new compared to the existing community driver (OpenChrome). This means that whilst this driver might be 'official', it does not really provide anything that wasn't already available.
    The one thing that is really required by open source is the documentation for the chipsets as this allows drivers to be written that utilise all the hardware capabilities.
  • pip182, on 09/02/2008, -0/+5Agreed, the ATI drivers still suck with compiz.... nVvidia gives me no problems. I don't care if they aren't open source, I just want my computer to work.
  • ommadawn, on 09/02/2008, -1/+6nVidia has the only driver that doesn't suck.

    Facts, they matter.
  • mrsteveman1, on 09/02/2008, -0/+5I'd rather they document their fuxing hardware than release a bunch of code like this. In the past other companies have done the same thing and the code has been functional but unreadable, so no one can fix bugs or tell what its doing.
  • undrgz, on 09/02/2008, -1/+5ati did it.
  • Coottie, on 09/02/2008, -0/+4In layman's terms, can someone help me understand why this announcement is significant and what we're likely to see as a result?

    I'm not trying to be a jerk here. I love the idea of FOSS and I've used various distros of Linux off and on since the mid 90s....mostly off. I don't keep up with the developments and I'm not a "hacker". I'm far from being an expert or even a power user and I don't even know what an XOrg driver does. So someone please enlighten me. Thanks!
  • Giga, on 09/02/2008, -2/+6That conclusion died when AMD released the specs and actively helped kick start the open source driver project.
  • Chicken, on 09/02/2008, -3/+6Just because they don't have open source drivers? I think we've had a discussion about this in several other articles and came to the conclusion that nvidia drivers work way better than ati's so why are you bitching?
  • inactive, on 09/02/2008, -0/+3VIA chips suck for gaming!
  • iliketowin, on 09/01/2008, -1/+4About Time!! :D
  • kephas, on 09/01/2008, -1/+4This is especially surprising considering Via has never had a good history with open source. In fact, at one point they forked xine and mplayer (to add compatibility with their binary blobs) without providing upstream patches or communicating with xine and mplayer's devs. Hopefully, this is the start of a complete change for them.
  • manacit2, on 09/02/2008, -2/+5the nvidia drivers in linux are AWESOME, they just aren't open source, so people like to bitch at them.
    I'm fine with closed source, but working.
  • Giga, on 09/02/2008, -1/+4Somewhat functional? Yes. Awesome? No. They are still sluggish at times and are quite buggy when used with compositing window managers.
  • bieber, on 09/02/2008, -1/+4WTF? Is there any underlying structure to that sentence, or is it just a huge heap of buzzwords? I'm _still_ trying to work out just exactly what it was you were trying to say...
  • TehDoctor, on 09/02/2008, -0/+3Same here, Giga. I've had slowdown problems, some lockups, and I can't hibernate because the driver's *****. Also, it doesn't support acpi through /proc, leaving me using a kludgy daemon that I only have because I'm on a Macbook Pro.

    I think manacit is just really damn lucky.
  • oobuntu, on 09/02/2008, -0/+2open source drivers matter ...

    my kubuntu installation on a dell dimension PC with a geforce 5200 gets completely confused when i upgrade the kernel, killing xorg and not allowing reinstallation of the nvidia binary drivers, and makes the dist-upgrade impossible too. i've lost many hours on it. admittedly my home PC running a 5600fx doesn't have quite the same problems but it does make me nervous about kernel/dist-upgrading.

    which is why i'm glad i bought a laptop with intel graphics card and intel wireless on it. kernel upgrades are straightforward and no more cause for worry.
  • ArthurSucks, on 09/01/2008, -2/+4Anything that can make the gaming market better for Linux users is a blessing as far as I'm concerned.
  • andycr512, on 09/03/2008, -0/+1There are many issues with nVidia's Linux drivers which simply don't exist on OSS drivers. They are by far the best binary-only drivers, but they are not shining examples of the best in Linux graphics drivers by any means. For performance and compatibility together, though, they are difficult to beat.
  • TehDoctor, on 09/02/2008, -3/+2I wonder how hard it would be to rip out the OS X nvidia drivers and if that could help in any way.
  • inactive, on 09/02/2008, -3/+1Well this means we can install a Linux distro and hopefully get fully working video ect.
  • inactive, on 09/02/2008, -6/+1FINALLY!!! I have been waiting so long for this I was about to give up hope!
  • scabbers, on 09/02/2008, -6/+1This means they're now linux certified ;)
  • ras0ir, on 09/01/2008, -7/+1Great news for FOSS community! I wish ATI and NVIDIA follow them.

  • inactive, on 09/01/2008, -14/+3AWESOME, IT IS SPELLED AWESOME!

    YOU JACKASS

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