Beta Drivers! Version 0.94 or Something.
Download XFree86 4.0 drivers for Linux (kernel versions > 2.2.12) and TNT, TNT2, GeForce, GeForce 2, and Quadro chipsets. Rumor has it the performance is very good. I'll confirm that rumor, as I am finally able to beat Quake 3 bots again. Note that this supports AGP and dynamically-linked GLX. The installation instructions are much improved.
Other Pages
Ooh, competition! The mythical 'competitor with good performance and driver
source code' has appeared! Read about it in the Latest News 27 July 2000
Read the Case for Open Drivers! 14 April 2000 (updated with better information)
I've moved the original story to the history page. Read it if you're interested in the state of NVIDIA drivers from August 1999 until late April 2000. (It's a good story, but the company is providing decent drivers now, so it's a little out of date.)
If you're having trouble getting things installed and working correctly, drop by the IRC channel #nvidia on irc.openprojects.net. Not only are there knowledgeable card owners who can help you, a couple of NVIDIA technical staff members offer suggestions and updated files, and take bug reports. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have things up and going right now. (I have an Ali-based motherboard. Disabling turbo AGP and setting IO Recovery time to 4 busclocks in my BIOS, as well as installing a newer kernel module got me to accelerated GL heaven!)
The good news I've been promising for months has yet to materialize. Is NVIDIA
undergoing internal turmoil, or am I just super lazy during the summer months?
(Given the frequency of Slashdot articles on
the company -- for which I take absolutely no credit -- one might wonder at the
community's views of NVIDIA. On the other hand, given the pervasive myth of
the virtuous underdog exported from the U.S., maybe Western civilization just l
ikes painting things in black and white, 3dfx vs. NVIDIA, and then devouring
the winner shortly after.) Yes, I've found other things to do, most of them
more entertaining than courting RSI by playing Quake non-stop. (Now if
someone'd just port Half-Life to Linux...)
Finally, listen to Part 7 of this interview on Planet GeForce. Tony Tamasi from NVIDIA talks about their drivers, including a bit about open source. I don't exactly agree with all of his conclusions, but making this kind of information public is good for both the company and the customers. We're all reasonable people -- let's keep the lines of communication open. (And if you have any more information for the analysis page, please let me know.)
This document may be mirrored (in its entirety) on any other web site, provided that any modifications are clearly marked, and a link is provided to the original location at http://snafu.wgz.org/chromatic/nvidia.
(one mirror is at www.fiftysix.org/nvidia. Thanks Matt!)
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