Originally posted by: KF
Originally posted by: cyberkost
I'm just so sick of Windows (that I now have to use at work), that I want to have a Linux box at home (which will allow me to be so much more productive in most of the things I do / interested in).
7 years? OK, I get it.
I am not a linux guru, I don't want to become a linux guru, and I don't have the talents required to be a linux guru. However, in the last year or so, after screwing around part time with linux almost as long as Windows has been around, I decided to convert to linux (but I haven't quite made it.) I don't like the way that big commercial OS vendor is locking me in deeper and deeper. It is as if you are the intruder on your own computer, and Vista looks to be bleaker.
What drives me nuts is that some of the linux evangelists are bigger bull-bleepers than the Windows types. Just because some things CAN be done in linux, does not mean you will ever figure out how yourself without help. There are lot of good and helpful people on the Ubuntu forum.
Originally posted by: cyberkost
However, I don't want to get stuck with hardware that I won't be able to use to its fullest thus all of these stupid sounding questions like "Is NVIDIA nicer for Linux than ATI?", "Can I overclock a videocard without putting it into a Windows machine first?", etc. BTW, any thoughts on this last one?
I don't know that those are stupid questions. Obviously video cards are really Win-video cards. The so-called drivers have evolved into just-in-time cross-compilers for the GPU, written only to run on Windows. I consider it remarkable that Nvidia and ATi have cooperated with the linux side to the extent they have. Meanwhile, the big linux honchos are bad-mouthing them and claiming they are violating the GPL the way they are doing it.
I'm not the guy that really has many answers, but here goes. Whenever you ask this type of question on a linux forum, you are inevitably going to get a lecture on why you are bad person for doing so. If you are put off by this, you will never track down and get in touch with the other people that are doing what you are looking for. Just don't bother being a PITA back to them, because making enemies doesn't get anything. Remember, you are going to be the leech on whoever is doing something. My guess is the people that are OCing in linux, if any, are going to be keeping a low profile on the major forums, just to avoid the heat.
Yes, I have run across statements that people are at work on OCing programs that do in linux what is being done in Windows. (If you have programming talents, there is a linux group that wants you to get with them, I am sure.) No, I have no recollection where I saw it. I wasn't that interested. I have things to get straight that come before that, and anyway OCing my video cards in Windows didn't seem to do much that I could notice.
I'm not sure what you are looking for in video performance if its not gaming. My current best video card is an ATi X800GTO; not exactly a screamer, but total overkill for what I do. (An ATi 9550 I got for $10 doesn't perform noticeably differently for what I do.) Ubuntu detected it as I installed Ubuntu, and it runs fine. Windows pop open about the same as in XP, maybe not quite. The proprietary drivers are faster. The Geforce 2 card I was using before was a wee bit slower, but we are talking the blink of an eye in all cases (on an 1280 x1024 screen.) On the other extreme, on another computer I have a creaky PCI Tseng card (which was before 3D) - could be 10 years old; Ubuntu detected it, and it runs fine. True, windows open slow, but you do adust. (Maybe it's the 550 MHz K6?) The normal linux desktops just don't use much of the extraordinary capabilties of current video cards. If a linux desktop is slower than XP, it isn't likely the video card.
The only hitch I know is not with ATi. If you change a video card AFTER linux is installed, if it is not detected as it boots up, the desktop can't start, and you will have to fix it at a command prompt. You should be ready before you do it. There is nothing obvious about what you need to do.
As I mentioned before, 3D desktops are in the works, but not stable. For at least one of these that people have working in Ubuntu with an nvidia card, there is something missing in the proprietary ATi driver that prevents it from working completely. My understanding is that both the ATi and nvidia open source drivers are insufficent for the 3D desktops.