Dexter Filmore wrote:

> > PC
> > hardware is designed for Windows.
> 
> ...and MacOS, in certain cases - ATI cards for example work fine on Macs, and since 
>MacOS X is based
> on FreeBSD kernel, I wonder why ATI cards give me so much trouble in Linux.

Well, it's really a kind of symbiotic relationship.  Equipment designers
work with Microsoft to mutually ensure compatibility, but they work
under non-disclosure agreements. Apple signs those NDAs and
participates, too, but they aren't very influential because they control
such a small part of the market.

> >  Linux is at best an afterthought
> > for the manufacturer, at worst an annoyance to be ignored or
> > supressed.  This is particularly true for video cards; I'm amazed that
> > so many recent cards >do< work decently with XFree86.

Business men hesitate to spend much money and effort to expand their
*potential* market by such a small percentage.  Judging by this list,
plenty of Linux users buy the latest products even though they aren't
supported by Linux, so the manufacturers have very little to gain.

> There's a lot of FM to read, and the F is ok here, reading man pages is not really a 
>very pleasant
> thing. The howtos are not newbie friendly, too. In fact, everything I leraned about 
>DOS/Win boxes I
> usually learned from friends (and what for? making Quake run faster ;), so the LUGs 
>will take this
> place. But it takes really, really long.

Teaching yourself a new and completely different system all by yourself
is a major challenge.  It's certainly a lot easier with a knowledgeable
friend looking over your shoulder and pointing at the screen.  Linux
people are spread pretty thin in the general population (and these days,
Unix people are even thinner.  Pity Phillip B. Bruce using Solaris on
x86).  We have to get together in fora like this to pool our knowledge
because we can't just ask the guy in the next cube.  But keep up your
hope, there are people on this list who probably know a lot more about
XFree86 than your neighbot knows about Windows.  A bit less
misinformation to sort through.

-- 
Remember, more computing power was thrown away last week than existed in
the world in 1982.  -- http://www.tom.womack.net/computing/prices.html
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