ATI has new Linux driver for download

NVIDIA HAS KICKED ATI hard with the quality of its Linux drivers and all of my Linux-friendly friends tell me how Nvidia is several light years ahead of ATI in Linux driver development. I heard some horrible stories from high end IT specialists, admins and programmers who told me that ATI's driver don't even have hardware cursor and that it's damn hard to install it. I actually tried it and it was a true nightmare.

But ATI is now releasing a new driver - mainly bug fixes and new product support but as we reported from Cyprus, it is doing something about its Linux driver line up.

The new driver will add support for FireGL V5100, V3200 and V3100, Mobility Radeon 9800 and X800, X600 and X300 - all PCIe versions.

It will add support for their Mobility Radeon 9000/9100 IGP Series as well and this fixes some of the problems. For example, 3Dgraph acceleration now works on KT400 boards, All in Wonder 8500DV has its 3D acceleration, and the ATI Radeon 9200 won't blink when you using DVI connector. X800 and FireFL X3 will be able to run more then a blank screen on X and some other stuff.

This driver still needs improvement but ATI said it will focus on that in the coming months. It takes a lot of time to make a good driver and we all know that by now. It made a great one for Windows so Linux is its next target. µ