Linux driver issues (was Re: [RndTbl] Missed the meeting...)

[John Lange]

On Thu, 2006-09-14 at 12:09 -0500, Gilbert E. Detillieux wrote:

> The on-board nVidia chipset wasn't supported by the open source "nv" 
> driver for Xorg,

Not surprising. The OSS versions of the drivers are not good.

>  nor was it even supported by nVidia's own binary-only 
> "nvidia" driver.

Thats strange. Recently I've had very good luck with the linux drivers
from the vendors though all my video cards are relatively recent.

>   I had gotten things to work - sort of - with the 
> generic "vesa" driver, but there was no support for DPMS screen 
> blanking, and no support for wide-screen monitors.

Agreed, the generic drivers are bad. Makes screen updates slow and
multi-media impossible.

I fully agree that fighting video issues has been a consistent problem
with Linux. Even simple things like changing your screen resolution can
be a nightmare. Thats why I'm so happy with SLED right now. First distro
I've used that I didn't have to do anything special to get video
working.

> That was with my home system, and my Epson RX500 all-in-one photo-grade 
> inkjet printer.  The generic driver under Linux works reasonably well 
> for draft-mode printing, but horribly for photo-grade printing, at least 
> on this particular series of Epson printers.

While I find excellent driver support for printers there is a lack of
good photo printing software for Linux.

Its one thing that I occasionally use windows for though more recently
I've taken to just ordering prints online. Its much cheaper than
printing yourself, the quality is better, and if you have a lot of
prints it can even be significantly faster even if you have to drive to
go pick them up.

Anyhow, thats off topic. We do need better photo software for Linux.
F-Spot seems to have some potential but I've had a heck of a time
figuring out how to work it.

John