On Jul 11, 2006, at 6:34 PM, DJA wrote:
Who really cares if it's a closed source driver? It works! I've had almost no problems using nVidia cards in Linux since RH6. I have a 256MB GeForce Go 6600 in my laptop and have experienced zero problems in Linux. It also works well enough in Linux to play FarCry.
Agreed, if gaming is a priority, then who cares. But there are people who *do* care about openness. And there are people who have experienced problems and have been shunned by the kernel developers due to tainted modules.
As for heat, again, who cares! If you want a good performing video chipset then heat is a given.
Not so much these days. With 90nm GPUs aimed at mobile applications, I'd expect them not to get ridiculously hot or battery hungry. 3D chipsets these days are so wicked good that no game uses all of the capability.
Five years ago you could've said the same thing about laptop CPUs - heat is a given if you want performance. But Intel's Pentium M turned that whole equation on its head.
I did look at Apple as an option when I was in the market about a year ago. But I couldn't get the combination of video chipset, hard drive size, and RAM I wanted. Plus, because I wanted to dual-boot Linux, and given that I kinda wanted the ability to play Windows- based games, I decided that getting the laptop from someone who officially supported Linux was more practical. I got mine from GamePC.com.
Yes, and your choice was correct a year ago. But the new Intel-based Apple MacBooks really open up the field of possibilities. They're basically Apple-branded dual core Centrino machines at a fantastic price point with the benefit that they can legally run OS X (but will happily boot Windows or Linux as well). The only real compromise is that they're configured with the Intel GMA950 3D chipset, which is functional but not high-end.
-- Joshua Penix http://www.binarytribe.com Binary Tribe Linux Integration Services & Network Consulting -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
