Re: [tlug] petition for opengraphics card

[Attila Kinali <attila@example.com>]

On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 01:41:23 -0700
Jonathan Byrne <jonathan@example.com> wrote:

> OTOH, if they start out too far above nVidia and ATI, they might never 
> sell enough to make the price come down, so it'll be a fine line to 
> walk.

Pricing is still a big concern, but before pricing can happen,
there need to be a card first :-)

> The only people who will care whether the card is open or not are 
> users of Linux, *BSD, and other Free OSes. Anybody running Windows is 
> likely to only care how it stacks up on price/performance Vs. the 
> biggies. To get *those* people to but it,

Those people don't matter that much. It is not expected that more
than a few 1000 pieces/year are sold on the PC market. The main
target will be embedded systems. There is much more money there
and those people care a lot more about having a fully documented
and possibly open source graphics card than any linux/*bsd user does.

> they'll need a value-priced 
> video card that nVidia and ATI find hard to match. 

What is your definition of value-priced?

>This could be 
> possible, since both of them seem to have largely abandoned the bottom 
> of the video card market. I really don't like paying $100 for a card 
> that does way more than I need, so I keep old ones going as long as I 
> possibly can. To support an open card, I'd pay it, though. $200 is just 
> too much for me. I don't need what a $200 card can deliver.

Uhm.. How do you know what a $100 card can deliver? How do you know
how this price is fixed?

Price and deliverables are two distinct features of a product that are
not really correlated.


> > I don't give two shits about gaming 
> 
> Me neither. I still look back with great fondness on a long series of 
> Matrox cards that I owned. The G400 and G450 were wonderful; best, 
> clearest, sharpest 2D and text I've had, even up until now.  They were 
> among the kit that didn't leave Japan with me, IIRC. A shame; if I 
> still had them, I think I'd still be using them today :)

The original goal is to create a modern day replacement for the
post-G550 desktop user that wants a card that just magicaly works.
Especially for OSS users that do not want to use shitty closed source
drivers from even more shitty manucaturers that blame their bugs on
others.

BTW: you still can buy G550s, even with PCI-E interfaces :-)

				Attila Kinali
-- 
Praised are the Fountains of Shelieth, the silver harp of the waters,
But blest in my name forever this stream that stanched my thirst!
                         -- Deed of Morred