xfre86 is the windowing system.
It contains the frameworks and
the drivers for input & output.
XF86 policy was to take only
pretty stable code for their
CVS repository.
dri is a spinoff that has all the
new drivers for 2D and 3D and tries
to accellerate them to the max.
they do merge back regulary to xf86.
call dri the "development branch".
The Mesa3D development is merging
more and more into the dri tree.
then there is gatos (i admit, i dont
know that much about it) which is
concentrating on areas like video
acceleartion, video in- and output.
to my knowledge its another developement
branch, dont know if they do merge back.
ATI does provide closed source drivers
for current XF86 framework. Its another
choice and some common problems that
do pop up will sooner or later have
beneficial effect for the XF86 project.
Due to closed source, it is possible
to implemente a few more features (S3TC)
and to integrate several secret high speed
codings which competitors should not see.
-Alex.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Balazic [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Friday, November 22, 2002 14:34
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED];
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: [Dri-users] How are different ATI drivers related ?
>
>
> Hi!
>
> As a future ATI Radeon 8500 owner :-) I wonder about the different
> available drivers :
>
> - xfree86
> - dri
> - gatos
> - ati.com
>
> How are they related ?
> Do the serve the same purpose or every one does its own part ?
> ( read : do I install one of them or do I combine them ? )
> Is there any overlap in functionality/features ? Code ?
> Is gatos fully free/open ?
> How about ATI.com ? Binary only ?
> Are those FAQ's ?
> And finally , what is the best ( combination of ) driver(s) out of
> those ( are there any others ? ) for an end user ?
>
> Regards, TIA and party on,
> david balazic
>
>
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