Re: debian can be better
On Thu, 28 Oct 2010, Patrick Matthäi <pmatthaei@debian.org> wrote:
> Most desktop users also want to have some 2D/3D performance, or special
> features like tv out, xvideo acceleration etc etc.
> nouveau is a good replacement for nv, but still far away of being useful
> for powerful desktop users.
I use nouveau every day for all my work. I think that's conclusive proof that
it's perfectly adequate for a large subset of "powerful desktop users". Not
to mention the less "powerful" desktop users who use their computers for
nothing but email, wordprocessing, and the occasional web browsing. My
parents still use a 32bit Celeron based system because it simply provides all
the compute power that they need. Debian just works for them.
> The security side:
> Sure, security issues could be "easily" fixed with open drivers, but if
> I remember right, the only security issue with a closed-source prop. X11
> video driver was 2-3 years ago with the nvidia one. And if there are
> some new sec. issues, you can still switch.
Sure you could switch if you knew about such issues. Of course the problem
with security issues is that they get exploited for some time before people
know about them.
> > I am not aware of anything that stops a Debian user from using a
> > binary-only Xorg driver.
>
> Not supported by us, officialy, they are also not on our installation
> cds (users have to activate non-free by themselve).
That doesn't seem overly difficult.
> > Intel video cards work really well in my experience, performance is great
> > including on 3D graphics with games such as Warzone 2100, Super Tux
> > Carts, and Tux Racer. Given a choice I'd just buy a system with Intel
> > graphics.
>
> It may be great with such "historic" games, but don't try to play modern
> games with intel HW ;)
The version of Super Tux Carts in Squeeze is significantly different to the
one that was in Lenny. It appears to still be in very active development.
Warzone 2100 is being actively developed too (3.0 is in beta, Squeeze has the
old version). But really it's an issue of what games I like.
If you can cite a car racing or RTS game that requires more 3D performance
than an Intel card can deliver then I'll consider other options for my gaming
system. But until/unless that happens the Intel based gaming system I use is
just good enough - I can find other things to spend my spare cash on. The
system in question has an E2160 CPU which makes it's design over 3 years old,
the people who use such systems for running Windows probably want a hardware
upgrade just to run the GUI. ;)
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