ATI Wants Open Source Drivers
Following speculation about the graphics card vendor ATI and a free Linux driver, a company representative has now confirmed that ATI will be placing the specifications of the R500 under an NDA.
Initially, there were rumors that ATI was planning new, proprietary drivers that promised considerable speed advantages. Just a short time later, an AMD spokesperson confirmed that the R500 graphics chip specification and Open Source libraries were being released to kernel developers under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). ATI owners AMD are also revealing the basics of the driver. A working 2D driver should be available around the end of this year, although 3D support will take slightly longer.
Shortly after AMD acquired ATI for US$ 5.4 billion in October 2006 there were various rumors about an open driver for the graphics cards.
Issue 161/2014
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Tag Cloud
News
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New TLS Attack Takes the S out of HTTPS
Vulnerability affects many Linux web servers
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Munich Adopts Kolab
The Bavarian capital shuns Microsoft, Google, and other alternatives to implement an open source groupware solution.
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Canonical Announces Ubuntu Smartphones
Phone vendor partnerships bring Mark Shuttleworth's dream of Ubuntu on a phone a step closer to reality.
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Piviti Seeks Funding
Donors will get to vote on new features for the free video editor.
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Debian Tech Committee Votes for systemd
Debian project puts init out to pasture and says no to Ubuntu's Upstart.
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The Mask: Scary New Face of Internet Intrusion
Ultra-sophisticated attack tool might have originated from a state-sponsored intelligence service.
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Epoch 1.0 Released
New alternative for init comes with a small footprint and minimal configuration.
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Wayland 1.4 Challenges X11
X marks the target for the next-generation windowing system.
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Red Hat Adopts CentOS
Super-clone CentOS Linux gets beamed up to the mother ship.
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W3C Promotes Media Source Extensions
HTML technology will enable new video editing and playback options.