# Writting letter to ATI (or AMD?)

## KAMIKAZE_

Hey guys! Let's all write a big letter to ATI! Let's tell them about all our problems instead of just sitting and blaming them on the local forums. How much of us bought ATI's products? How much all of them costs? I think after ATI's joining to AMD - it is the right time to ask them: "Hey, yo! Where is your support?". They should know that there is no reason to buy their production if we can't use it without headaches. So let's accumulate all our problems in one letter and send it to them?!

----------

## Lloeki

google for 'ati petition'. don't take it personnally, but do you really think you're the first to come up with this idea?

whatever, my vote is cast, I switched to nvidia already.

----------

## Headrush

I sent my message by not buying any ATI based cards for myself or my clients for the last 5 or so years.

Over that time that has added up to several thousands of dollars that went to companies making nvidia based products.

I'm sure I'm not alone, so if seeing profits for nvidia increase as their profits drop doesn't get their attention, I don't think letter writing from Linux users will do much.   :Sad: 

Good luck. It would be nice to see better Linux support for all ATI products. (Competition is always good.)

----------

## tomasm

1) GNU/Linux users who have 2) an ATI card that 3) care that it 4) doesn't work to it's full capabilities enought to 5) boycot ATI products are a niche, inside a niche, inside a niche, inside a niche, inside a niche. Any profit loss from us is lost in the financial whitenoise. This will not work; ATI does not care, and have demonstrated this.

A letter will make little difference. However, what if everyone writes a letter/email?

----------

## KAMIKAZE_

Ok... let's everyone write to ATI... if all of us stops googleing for "ati petition" and REALLY speaks to ATI... I think they do something someday... Just don't stop speak to them! Ok, today I'll start my letter...

----------

## Zee

I'm a very unhappy owner of an ATI X800GTO2 card that in Linux runs MUCH MUCH slower than the graphics card I have in my laptop (GeForce Go5200). The main culprit are the drivers.

I will never buy an ATI (DAAMIT for that matter) card again. Even an integrated Intel solution is better.

zee

----------

## EzInKy

I am a very happy owner of a radeon X800Pro, a radeon 9600, two radeon 9250s, and former owner of a radeon 7000 because all of them are supported now by open source drivers. When future cards are supported I will buy those too. I won't sign a petition for better closed source drivers because I have no use for those, but I would be happy to sign a petition encouraging ATI/AMD to release more specs to help speed up r300 development.

----------

## KAMIKAZE_

 *EzInKy wrote:*   

> I am a very happy owner of a radeon X800Pro, a radeon 9600, two radeon 9250s, and former owner of a radeon 7000 because all of them are supported now by open source drivers. When future cards are supported I will buy those too. I won't sign a petition for better closed source drivers because I have no use for those, but I would be happy to sign a petition encouraging ATI/AMD to release more specs to help speed up r300 development.

 

This is for you  :Wink: 

----------

## tuppe666

I have to say I agree with EzInKy. I would by a intel for onboard graphics every time, but for open source r200-r300 based cards thats upto the x850 are all supported under open source.

There is no alternative to Ati for open source 3D

----------

## bradbeglin

um, another "open source your drivers" plea.... oh brother

First, open source is a license and to some extent a developement model.....nothing more.  If ATI users want better drivers, how about just ask for better drivers.  Just making the drivers open source is not going to instantly lead to better drivers in and of itself, it will only make purist developers happy.  Don't get me wrong, I am a purist at heart, but it is about time even purist get a little practical here.  Open source might be ideal, but then again, so would open source hardware, and I do not hear many people asking ATI to stop filing patents and open source their hardware too.

Second, no, we as Linux users might not make a huge difference in ATI's profit share right now, but in the long run we can cost ATI dearly, since most of us influence the buying choices of lots of other people.

Third, how about help out with open source ATI driver alternative.  That is the open source way.

Finally, how about petition for ATI to make better drivers period.  When I was a Window's users, even the improved ATI drivers were buggy and horrible.  That is the main reason I switched to Nvidia, to get better drivers, period.

----------

## EzInKy

 *gtbrad wrote:*   

> um, another "open source your drivers" plea.... oh brother
> 
> 

 

Absolutely. Whether it be ATI, nVidia, or Microsoft themselves, when you depend on closed source software to make your computer work you put your self at the mercy of closed source companies. And I didn't say ask ATI to open source their drivers, only to provide additional specs to reduce the need to reverse engineer.

----------

## Lloeki

 *Quote:*   

> r200-r300 based cards thats up to the x850 are all supported under open source. 

 

when I dropped them (6 month ago), r300 was barely experimental, and r200 was making a 9600 just as worthy as a 7200 in terms of opengl capabilities. from what I know, they don't seem close to support GL_(ATI|ARB)_(fragment|vertex)_program, let alone GLSL. so yes, you could run neverball or quake 3 in all their glory, but that's not what I think the cards are realistically expected to do. please excuse my lack of knowledge about its state as of today.

whatever, we were not talking about opensource drivers here, nor nvidia for that matters, but anyhow I feel this thread is bound to just go on on a big troll war.

----------

## Kate Monster

Its a good idea, but sadly as far as all similar pleas go (better support for such-and-such hardware/software under Linux) its just not going to happen. macintosh and windows are the only two officially recognized/supported OS's by most hardware manufacterors, and its going to stay that way until a higher percent of the market actually uses Linux. Its a vicious cycle, because I'm sure there are a bunch of people who won't switch to Linux for fear of a highly gimped system.

----------

