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...
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Rogério Brito - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - http://www.ime.usp.br/~rbrito/
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