Date: Sun, 31 Jan 1999 16:21:39 -0400 (AST) From: The Hermit Hacker <scrappy@hub.org> To: "Jason C. Wells" <jcwells@u.washington.edu> Cc: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: From Slashdot... Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9901311557370.374-100000@thelab.hub.org> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9901311925380.17441-100000@s8-37-26.student.washington.edu>
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On Sun, 31 Jan 1999, Jason C. Wells wrote:
> On Sun, 31 Jan 1999, The Hermit Hacker wrote:
>
> >I'm just curious, but what direction is FreeBSD taking? I just picked up
> >this really nice AGP video card (Creative Graphics Blaster RivaTNT
> >chipset, 16MB of RAM...specs on it look very impressive)...
>
> The same direction it always has. Should FreeBSD change it's tack because
> one very cheap, very kickass video card hit the market? Hardly!
cheap it was not...and the reason I posted this is because I don't know
*what* "tack" FreeBSD is taking...do we have some sort of "mission
statement" out there that I can read through, as to what our mandate is?
What audience we are looking at marketing to? If the server market,
great, that's what I primarily use it for anyway, but it also means I'm
going to have to setup a second machine to do the high-end graphics stuff.
Not a big issue, just rather keep it all to one OS...
> >Its barely supported by XFree86, none of the Creative Graphics cards
> >appear to be supported by AccelX...and, with the above notice, it looks
> >like Creative has a whole department of programmers setup to fall behind
> >Linux...
>
> If this happens and those people are going to write drivers for Linux,
> then that means that they are going to write drivers for XFree86. Unless
> the Linux folk have figured out a reason/way to not use X for accelerated
> video. (It wouldn't suprise me to see Linuxites reimplement X under GPL
> though using the NIH philosophy.)
Obvious, you have not taken the time to go and read what is at the URL
that I included in my email...if you had, you would have noticed that what
I posted appears to indicated *kernel* drivers for the various video and
sound drivers, and in binary only format...
One thing that I overlooked, and was brought up on the multimedia list,
was that it does mention xBSD systems in a small blurb...but nothing that
I would bear much confidence on...
> If they write drivers for Xfree86 then their source will be available.
> This means that they have written drivers for _free software_ in general,
> including FreeBSD.
Again, take a second to go read the URL I posted *before* spouting off
stuff that you appear to have little knowledge of. The Creative folks are
working on, if I'm reading it right, *binary-only* kernel modules, for,
again, if I'm understanding correctly, the 3D accelerators and such...
> >What do we have to do to improve our imagine? Get the "big companies"
> >like Creative to recognize us and provide us with driver support? Or, is
> >this something that really doesn't concern us, as we are trying to fill a
> >totally different niche?
>
> This would always be good. Let me loosely quote a Jordanism, "If you want
> to see some work done, then do the work."
I try and put what I can, where I can...once Applixware is ported over, I
will be purchasing that...I just looked at the Metro-X web site, which has
their X-server ported to FreeBSD, and *appears* to support the video card
that I have, so will be looking at purchasing that...
I can't code Video drivers (well, never looked into it, so don't know if I
can or not, really) or sound...I don't expect it all for free either. If
AccelX supported by video card, I would have ordered it...
> Also, what is wrong with filling a "totally different niche"? Answer me
> that!
Odd question...do you actually *read* the messages you answer, or do you
just spew? My question was asked in order to find out *whether* we were
trying to fill a totally different niche, not to question whether that was
bad or good. I don't much care either way, except that if that is the
case, I will continue to use FreeBSD for what I consider to be crucial
stuff, namely servers, and start investigating a new machine to do that
which FreeBSD can't do.
If FreeBSD is going to focus itself on "server applications" and Linux on
desktop environments, then so be it...that is all I am asking. From a
visibility standpoint, anything new is developed under Linux, and,
unfortunately, tends to have Linuxism's included that sometimes make it
more difficult to port to anything else (whether that be FreeBSD or
Solaris, or...?) It almost feels, at times, that we are trying to play
catchup, when we've been around longer, and are more stable :(
> The sky is not falling on FreeBSD.
I never implied it was...just asked what role/direction it was taking...
> This is not written to Mr. Hermit but is a general reply to the original
> author who is probably not listening. :)
Since I am the original author, and am reading and responding, where do
you get the "probably not listening" part?
Marc G. Fournier
Systems Administrator @ hub.org
primary: scrappy@hub.org secondary: scrappy@{freebsd|postgresql}.org
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