On Sun, 21 Nov 1999, you wrote:
> That's rather odd... At least 3dfx has been extremely good to the Linux
> people.
True. . .from our (steve-o +myself) perception, there is another side of 3dfx.
Suppose for a second that a little upstart chipmaker named nVidia had just said
"Well, after the lukewarm reception our Riva 128 and NV1 chipsets received,
let's just throw in the towel,", or suppose their neighbor down the block at
Casa S3 had said "Ok so much for Virge, let's design. . .floppy drives!"
Assume that for all the other players in the video card market EXCEPT 3dfx, who
is now king of the hill. . .so what are we stuck with? Boards that are still
only rendering in 16 bits (altho according to 3dfx "it's actually closer to 22
bits") and not using AGP sidebanding or addressing, or to simplify: Stagnant
Technology. I mean honestly, with what other chipmakers are putting out, did
nVidia really NEED to impliment a Geometry Engine? Probably not, but they did.
Hopefully part of the reasoning there was just because they had the tech and
they could. 3dfx assumes that status quo for the moment is just fine and
they'll impliment "next-gen" features when we feel like it. So yah, maybe
theyve done good things for linux, but the big picture there. . ? I'm sure to
them linux users are just another market to be branded and subverted, figure if
they get here first, we'll all settle for their substandard hardware just cuz
it works. Well. . .Windows is substandard but it works. . .(not to down on any
3dfx owners, i have 2 V2s myself, but then. the V2 was a good product for its
time).
Sun. . .well. . .Java. . .yeah. . .that seems a really convoluted problem as it
is. Microsoft wanted it they did their own thing sun didnt like that back
forth etc. . .
Jini? from a design standpoint its actually pretty cool. . .read the spec if
you can find it somewhere (bn.com). . .it's actually a pretty entertaining read.
Yah being an enemy of ms doesnt make em a friend of yours, but. . .to US its
not so much about big billy vs tux. . .its about other things. Its about
aesthetics, design, things that most people dont even consider anymore when it
comes to computers (which is a shame). We both use AMD processors not because
they were cheaper at the time or because we dont like intel, but because their
design is quite neater than a comparable intel chip (if you dont believe it,
order the Technical References from AMD and Intel and compare the design notes
yerself). I think if the situation were reversed, linux being not free, but
all the other good things it is, and windows being free but crap, id pay 100
for linux. . .and if something comes up that has a neater design than linux and
performs comparably or better (and no, it's NOT BeOS), we'll probably use that
too. . .even if it were to come from microsoft. . .
i dunno i guess mr mccaul's statements were a bit vague true. . .but again its
not about linux. . .i mean it could be the cancer researcher who finds a cure
using an unorthodox but creative method, or it could just be all the people out
there subverting dominant paradigms in their own way. . .i mean all those
places where linux and microsoft and sun and 3dfx dont even matter. . .going
with the superior and not the standard. . .or something. . .
hmm. . .i sense i have rambled excessively again. . .sorry
--
Seth Gibson
www.mp3.com/PSM0x2710
members.tripod.com/cybernetic_thunder (Under Construction)
The Functional Design of the UNIX Operating System is probably one of the
few truly beautiful things left in the world.
