[aklug] Re: free software compatible hardware

On Friday 28 September 2012 12:49:38 pm Christopher Howard wrote:
> On 09/28/2012 12:30 PM, Joshua J. Kugler wrote:
> > I daily use a System76 Laptop (a 17" model they no longer sell). I love.
> > It's rock solid, everything works (even the fingerprint scanner), and
> > battery life is pretty good too (3-ish hours, I think). They are also
> > very responsive to support requests. i would highly recommend them.
> >
> > j
> >
> > On Friday, September 28, 2012 07:18:27 Leif Sawyer wrote:
> >
> > ---------
> > To unsubscribe, send email to <aklug-request@aklug.org>
> > with 'unsubscribe' in the message body.
>
> Does your laptop have 3D graphics acceleration? What GPU chipset does it
> have, and what graphics drivers do you use?
>
> In short: I'm not really looking to buy a new system; I'm actually on a
> quest to figure out how I can get accelerated 3D graphics without giving
> up my FOSS principles. I found out that the Radeon chipset in my current
> machine requires the use of a non-free firmware blob in the kernel. So
> I'm looking at specs from the "FOSS compatible" systems to see what they
> are using.

I use NVidia'a driver, not FOSS, there is not a FOSS solution for my card and
mult-monitor setup. Workstation stuff. I am fine with that. This is hardware 3D.

There are ,at least, a couple of ways to get 3D, software via the mesa stuff, and
the 'binary blobs' for hardware acceleration. More chipsets might work in in
software, for FOSS, than hardware.

Intel chipsets seem to work with mesa, not sure about hardware acceleration.

I think there are a number of laptops available that work reliably with Linux, the
trick is to get one without Windows on it. Some of the Liunx laptop vendors are
using Thinkpads and Dells.. I am happy with my Thinkpad, but I have to run
software provided by my clients...all Windows :-(

-- 
Peace,
Greg
---------
To unsubscribe, send email to <aklug-request@aklug.org>
with 'unsubscribe' in the message body.