Open and Closed Source: New Drivers by ATI and Nvidia
AMD has put its money where its mouth is, and published the first free Linux drivers for its ATI R500 and R600 graphics cards in collaboration with Novell. After a lengthy break, Nvidia has also released a new version of its proprietary graphics driver.
The developers describe the quality of the first free ATI driver as "Alpha". The next steps on the roadmap include support for RandR 1.2, video overlay, 2D graphics acceleration and adding more hardware. The drivers are available as prebuilt installation package for Fedora, Mandriva and various Suse distributions. Users with other GNU/Linux systems can download the driver source code from the Git archive and build a driver themselves.
Things have also been happening down at Nvidia's HQ. The vendor has just released an updated version of its closed source driver which includes support for Quadro graphics chips and Geforce 8 cards. Add a larger number of bugfixes and improved support for the current X.org version 7.3 and kernel 2.6.23. Other changes and enhancements are available from the vendor's website. Drivers for Linux and Solaris are available for downloading now. Users with FreeBSD will have to wait, though.
Issue 241/2020
Buy this issue as a PDF
News
-
Ubuntu 20.10 now supports Raspberry Pi
Ubuntu 20.10 is the first release from Canonical to support the Raspberry Pi single board computer.
-
A New Linux Distribution has been Released
Emperor-OS is a new Linux distribution focused on programming, developing, and data science.
-
Ubuntu Groovy Gorilla Beta Available
The beta version for Ubuntu’s latest release is now available for testing.
-
Microsoft is Finally Set to Release Edge Browser for Linux
Chromium-based MS Edge browser will soon be available for testing on Linux.
-
Lenovo Now Offering Ubuntu 20.04 as an Option
Lenovo is making good on its promise to support Linux as a pre-install option.
-
Linux Deepin 20 Released
One of the most beautiful Linux distributions on the market has been refreshed.
-
A New Version of Zorin OS is Now Available
Fan-favorite, Zorin OS 15.3 is officially available.
-
Lenovo Now Offering Fedora Linux as an Option
Lenovo is making good on their Linux promise by adding Fedora into the mix.
-
System76 Launches New High-End Laptop
System76 has unleashed a beast of a mobile workstation.
-
Mozilla Lays Off Staff, Receives More Cash
In a restructuring move, Mozilla lays off 250 employees, but then inks large deal with Google.