It appears to me that M$ is up to their usual tricks and someone should complain to the DOJ.
If you want to run Vista, you either need to either buy a new graphics card or mother board, or buy a new computer with a Vista capable video system. Where the conspiracy theory come in is if people buy new systems. What happens to the old systems? Legally, it you sell or donate the computer, the license to run the old version of Windows is no longer valid, but even if the new owner continues to illegally use the old version, support will expire and it might not run new applications. In many cases, these computers would not be upgradeable to use Vista for a economical amount. IAC, there are two cases which interest me. These new Vista capable computers are not going to be good to run Linux on unless they have an Intel mother board chip with on board graphics (mostly the G765, but there are a few others). these old discarded, donated, sold, traded in to Computer Renaissance, etc. computers are an interesting question. There may be a lot of them if the M$ Lemmings all upgrade. Many of these will not be upgradeable to run Vista and for those that are, it would be a lot to spend on a used computer. So, these systems are either basically dead, or they represent a great opportunity if people choose to install Linux, BSD, or Solaris on them. So I wonder what will happen. Perhaps M$ will shoot themselves in both feet. :-D IAC, we need to consider that there is a lot of dual boot systems in the Linux world and if dual-booters want to run Vista, they will need a Vista capable system. Do we have any chance of making a Vista capable video board? So, I refer to the news letter. Eric mentions the possibility of using an Intel G965 chip for a graphics card. This appears like a good idea to me. I note that this would also require a ROM both for the VGA-BIOS and for the information to boot the G965 chip. You have no video till the chip is initialized. So, we might also consider a dumb MPU to initialize the G965 chip at boot so the main CPU wouldn't have to do it. Keith Packard indicated, in the video clip from the Australia conference, that there will be FULL Xorg support for the G965 chip. I also note that this chip is approved for Vista. There is a downside to this. :-( When questioned, KP was very vague as to whether or not Intel would offer the GMA X3000 on a video board. If they decided to do this, this project would be dead unless we offered an X server on a board system or if we had a board with additional acceleration. It is possible to use this chip, or a lessor one that is still Vista approved, to provide the basic VGA, basic video operations, memory controller, and video output. This might be more efficient than reinventing them and we have the ability to run Vista. Does anyone know how much an Intel 82G965 chip costs? -- JRT _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [email protected] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
