multiseat

[Ian Romanick]

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Jon Smirl wrote:
> On 7/30/05, Daniel Stone <daniel at fooishbar.org> wrote:
> 
>>Right.  Unfortunately, this is particularly the case with old drivers
>>for old cards that no-one cares about anymore, which also happens to be
>>the cheapest way to fly.  And often, the motivator for multiseat setups
>>is to reduce cost.  Finding new cards x4 (i.e. one AGP and three PCI) is
>>surprisingly non-trivial.  I set out with a mandate to get three PCI
>>GeForces (any generation), and wandered around Melbourne's swap meets,
>>which have the cheapest kit, and often second-hand.  $230 later, I had
>>my three cards.
> 
> You can buy brand new PCI Radeon 7000 with dual heads for $27.
> http://store.yahoo.com/str8buy/chaingefmx4x.html
> It is available from lots of other vendors at around $30.
> 
> Brand new 9250 for $44
> http://www.mtssales.com/ProductInfo.aspx?id=384438

You do have a valid point here.  However, you are missing another valid
point.  There are organizations like FreeGeek (http://www.freegeek.org/)
and Geeks Without Borders (http://www.gwob.org/) that can afford exactly
$0.  They have to rely exclusively on donations and "throw away" hardware.

The more hardware we can support, the broader their options are.
Keeping functioning hardware out of landfills and in people's systems is
a Good Thing.

A big part of what keeps me interested in open drivers is keeping this
class of hardware viable (for some definition of "viable") for these
types of organizations.
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