Re: Nvidia driver -why so hard to install?
"Willem-Jan Meijer" <meyer3@chello.nl> writes:
> So I installed it, and during the installation there was a question about
> wich driver to use for my geforce2 mx. There was also a possibility to
> enable 3d acceleration. I turned it on and finished the installation. When I
> logged in at kde 3.0.5 and started tuxracer to test the 3d capabilities IT
> WORKED :D
>
> I didn't had to compile modules, kernels and all that stuff - it just works.
> It's using kernel 2.4.20, maybe is that te problem in debian ( I don't know
> how to do a kernel upgrade ). I don't like SuSE (too much wizards), but it's
> easy to use nvidia cards - and I like that
>
> But why is it in SuSE 8.1 easy and painless but so hard in debian woody?
Nvidia doesn't provide the required technical details for people to
write Open Source drivers. Instead the provide their own proprietary
drivers. I'm not sure of the licensing conditions and the legal status
of everything, but it might not be entirely legal for Debian to
distribute the drivers in binary form.
Suse tends to provide much more proprietary software (especially with
their "professional" version). But I don't think that is the main
issue. I think that Debian is much more worried of legal
consequences. For example I was incredibly surprised to find that
mplayer is included in the latest version of Suse. mplayer is not
included in Debian because of several legal problems (licensing,
patents, etc), even though the authors have released it under the GPL.
I used to have a TNT2 but I got rid of it a while ago. I now have an
ATI Radeon and a ATI Rage 128 (in a laptop). They both work quite well
with 3d acceleration, and don't require much extra configuration.
Bijan
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