Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 16:52:42 -0700 From: Graeme Tait <graeme@echidna.com> To: "Jason C. Wells" <jcwells@u.washington.edu> Cc: John Sconiers <John_Sconieres@ama-assn.org>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Metro-X -vs Accelerated-X Message-ID: <3623E7CA.2676@echidna.com> References: <Pine.BSF.4.02A.9810131234190.1646-100000@s8-37-26.student.washington.edu>
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Jason C. Wells wrote: > > On Tue, 13 Oct 1998, John Sconiers wrote: > > >I am thinking of investing in a commercial x-windows display server. > >Has anyone tried out Metro-x and accelerated-x and how do they stack up > >against each other. Is it even worth buying a commercial x-server or > >should I stay with Xfree86. > > The only reason I can think of to use commercial X is to get support for a > new video card or to get multiheaded servers. There are accelerated > servers in XFree86. > > OBTW, Multiheading will be coming to XFree86 with version 4.0. I was told the following by a vendor of FreeBSD-equipped systems; I don't know how true it is, and I may not be reporting the story quite accurately: That there are relatively few chipsets in relation to the many vendors of video cards, and so much of the difference hangs on proprietary features coded into the cards, etc. To fully exploit the capabilities of some cards may require information only obtainable by the signing of non-disclosure agreements, etc., and by accepting restrictions on the form of distribution. As a result, XFree86 drivers may not be able to realize the full potential of cards, while commercial drivers like AcceleratedX can. What difference this makes in practice, I would be interested to know. -- Graeme Tait - Echidna To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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