Nvidia's binary can't be compared to ATI's one. The problems you describe are ATI-binary specific. And yes the nvidia binary replaces a lot of Xorg stuff, but after some time you will realise that this is a good thing, as the Xorg is a mess, breaks with updates, and introduces bugs with each release. And because developers know that, they always prepare their software for nvidia, as it is the only *serious* graphics solution for *nix right now. Don't get me wrong, I don't even have an nvidia card in my systems right now (cause ATI are superior in windows, all my systems have ATI), but I miss the times that I had one. So much more stuff worked without problems and with better performance. On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 4:42 PM, BRM wrote: > That's great so long as nVidia supports your card. The problem with the > binary drivers is that they typically only support a percentage of all the > cards the video maker makes. > For example, I can't use the ATI binary driver on my laptop since it no > longer supports the R250 chipset, only their latest 3 or 4 generations of > cards. So I have to use the OSS driver, which works great with it. > I have been able to use both the OSS and proprietary drivers on my desktop > with an nVidia card, but I don't know how much longer that will last. > > nVidia's proprietary driver is good namely because it is the same at the > core as on Windows and Mac, and they wrap it to make it work with the *nix > kernels. However, they also do a lot of other funky stuff and keep people > from being able to fully use the full extend of X. Just search this list > (among others) for xRanderer and other components of X and you'll see the > full story of nVidia's proprietary driver. > > Ben > > > *From:* App Deb > *To:* gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org > *Sent:* Tue, July 27, 2010 5:29:10 AM > *Subject:* Re: [gentoo-user] Re: State of Radeon drivers > > If you are going to use any *nix, nvidia is the best option for years now. > The nvidia closed source drivers are of professional quality and have great > performance. Actually they are the *standard* for graphics in *nix, and many > (professional or not) applications actually support only nvidia. > > The ati oss driver is still under development, sometimes it works ok, > sometimes not, and it is mostly for basic desktop usage and in my opinion it > is progressing too slow. Anyway, I don't like having a driver that uses 10% > of my hardware's capabilties. So until it actually reaches 100% (like the > rest of the linux drivers) I can't recommend ATI on linux and nvidia is the > way to go. > > On Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 7:32 PM, Florian Philipp < > lists@f_philipp.fastmail.net> wrote: > >> Am 26.07.2010 01:01, schrieb James: >> > Florian Philipp f_philipp.fastmail.net> writes: >> > >> > >> >> I have a quick question: I plan to buy a notebook with an ATI Mobility >> >> Radeon HD 4250. How well would that one work? Can I reasonably expect >> >> Suspend2Ram, 3d acceleration etc to work stable? >> > >> > Well, lots of good information previously posted. Here's a >> > few more tidbits. When ATI video get's older, there's >> > always good opensource solutions to keep using it. Nvidia, >> > sometimes you toss in garbage can, or use vesa or >> > get lucky? Dunno, as I personally avoid Nvidia; other >> > insist on Nvidia..... kinda a religious thing with some..... >> > >> >> Hehe, religious is the right word. I remember a situation at my >> workplace: The admin of our departement IT ordered a Linux workstation >> with (fully supported) ATI graphics. At the last second he was overruled >> by the head of our institute's IT in favor of a completely unsupported >> and more expensive NVidia card. Not only did the poor guy have to wait >> two more weeks for the shipment to arrive, he was also stuck with the >> VESA driver for half a year and unstable NVidia drivers ever since. >> >> Well, thanks everyone who answered! Problem solved. >> >> Florian Philipp >> >> >