[Intel-gfx] artefacts on 855 graphic

[Alan W. Irwin]

On 2010-11-28 00:01+0100 Clemens Eisserer wrote:

> Hi Alan,
>
>> Frankly, it harms Intel's Linux reputation that this regression in 3D
>> support for old chips has been allowed to develop.
>
> Well, I also own a 855GM powered laptop, but I have to add that I
> understand intel's descision to not devote a lot development resources
> to it anymore.

Hi Clemens:

Yeah, I agree that Intel should not devote huge resources to this.
That was why I was talking about Intel supporting a minimally
maintained fork of an old working driver that did have good 3D support
for legacy Intel hardware.

> 3D on that hardware doesn't make a lot of sence ....

I disagree with you there.  I know from experience that 855GM hardware
would still be fairly powerful with the right software support.
Low-end 3D games worked well on that Shuttle box for me, and
it also received good reviews for 3D elsewhere with the caveat of not
expecting much for demanding high-end 3D games.  I didn't try it for
3D desktop effects at the time (I am not sure they even existed in
2004) but assuming the software and hardware demands of current 3D
desktop effects are similar to those of low-end 3D games, then a
minimally maintained fork of the old Intel driver that resurrected the
3D responsiveness I remember for that hardware should be more than
adequate to support 3D desktop effects.

> Furthermore its not different from what other GPU vendors do with
> legacy hardware.
> Take nvidia for example - their old chips don't get driver updates
> anymore, and the more-or-less official recommendation is to use nv
> instead. I have to use the reverse engineered nouveau driver on that
> machines (and I am really happy with it) to get at least useable 2D.
> And for AMD, the HD2100 powered mainboard I bought exactly one year
> ago doesn't receive any driver updates for windows anymore too, one
> year after I bought it.

Yup, this is the known downside of proprietary software drivers, but
why would Intel want to copy that bad practice?  People like me want
to be free to "use up and wear out" our computer devices rather than
being the victim of forced hardware upgrades.  That's one of the big
advantages of open-source driver software from a user's perspective. 
For example, the open-source nouveau for Nvidia and Radeon for AMD/ATI
drivers do support legacy hardware. Why would Intel not want to follow
that good open-source practice?

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state implementation
for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting software
package (plplot.org); the libLASi project (unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of
Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure Project
(lbproject.sf.net).
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Linux-powered Science
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