[Openchrome-users] Support for S3 Graphics DeltaChrome, GammaChrome and ChromeS20 generation

[Xavier Bachelot]

Luc Verhaegen wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 20, 2007 at 02:14:48PM +0100, Xavier Bachelot wrote:
>> Does this mean you found a way around your usual -ENOHW or you're just 
>> feeling alone in unichrome lists ?
>>
>> May I again repeat the split between unichrome and openchrome is a 
>> massive waste of energy ? May I also repeat that mpeg2 hw decoding is 
>> not just chrome for at lot of ppl out there ? And may I also repeat that 
>> bad hack to support hardware is still better than no support at all, at 
>> least temporary until someone do The Right Thing (w/o breaking all the 
>> not so right things, obviously) ?
>>
>> I really don't understand what you're trying to achieve...
>>
>> X.
> 
> There's a really big difference between knowing whether hardware can be 
> supported and actually supporting it. By looking at the VGA roms i will 
> find out whether this is possible or not from the same driver. This only 
> the prerequisite to actual support, but it is highly important 
> knowledge.
> 
> Besides, looking at roms is very endorphine laden, much more than plain 
> development. And there's a real thrill involved here, as, once more, i'd 
> be venturing where no-one went before. This is properly exciting stuff.
> 
> About the more inflammatory content of your reply: did you read this:
> http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xorg/2007-March/022582.html
> 
Yes, I did. This looks indeed pretty interesting, but doesn't invalidate 
any of my remarks. What the use of all this for all the hardware 
unichrome driver doesn't support ? This looks like chrome to me, just 
like the mpeg2 hardware helper or unichrome pro support looks to you. I 
don't mean it's not valuable, quite the contrary, but it's just not 
useful to me now. I feel the burden of proprietary bioses, but that's 
something I can cope with for now

In the greater picture, do you think it's more valuable to let someone 
out in the cold unable to use Linux at all on his hardware or let him 
run Linux, even if some concession have to be done ? Did you wait for 
linuxbios before running Linux at all ? Not everything is black or 
white. I'm really looking forward to run a completely free computer, but 
meanwhile I'll do my best to stay as much free as possible and still get 
  my work done. The 'holier than tho' attitude won't bring freedom to 
the masses, just the feeling of freedom to some uber-geeks.

Regards,
Xavier