Re: G3's, G4's, Altivec, DVD's, iBooks, and TiBooks

[Rogério Brito <rbrito@ime.usp.br>]

On Oct 25 2001, Michel Dänzer wrote:
> On Thu, 2001-10-25 at 00:19, Michel Lanners wrote: 
> > - make the iDCT and motion compensation of the ATI chip available under
> >   Linux. Single most usefull improvement.
> 
> Unfortunately, it's also the least likely to happen.

	What is the reason for that?

	I must confess that I am very keen on purchasing an Apple
	computer, and that Branden's question was exactly one of my
	curiosities, since I'm a graduate student.

	Unfortunately, I can't afford a PowerBook, especially since my
	income is so low and the prices that Apple resellers charge
	here in Brazil are quite high at US$1780+ for the low-end
	iBook (and the newer models are not even available yet).

	This justifies my attention to this thread about the
	limitations of running Linux on an iBook.

	So, back to the discussion, is it the case that ATI is not
	willing to cooperate? I thought that they, together with
	Matrox, were some of the more open-source-friendly companies
	making video cards.

	Do they have any legal problems releasing the documentation?
	Would a petition signed by users of the "minority" OSes (say,
	users of the many distributions of Linux and the BSDs) be a
	sensible notice for ATI that there are people willing to use
	their hardware with alternative OSes?

> I think fully utilizing what we can should allow for at least
> bearable playback on any current hardware.

	Well, it would be a problem (especially from an investment
	standpoint) to not be able to use the full potential of the
	hardware, given that it is not exactly cheap. :-/

	But, OTOH, if it were possible to use the machine as well as
	with other operating systems like MaOS X, then the iBook would
	be indeed more attractive than the x86 portables.


	Still thinking on the matter, Roger...

-- 
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
  Rogério Brito - rbrito@ime.usp.br - http://www.ime.usp.br/~rbrito/
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=