Re: ati

["Robert G. Brown" <bob@xxxxxxx>]

Adam Williams:
>>Buy an ATI card, and your systems will be much more stable....
akira@kalamazoo.net:
>diamond makes the worst video drivers? and why is that? just because your
>roomate had problems doesn't mean every single diamond card/driver is that
>way. ....
I agreed with Adams' line of reasoning. Since the drivers shipped with NT
ARE NOT OPEN SOURCE, there's no clear way (other than disassembly and EXTENSIVE
STUDY) to make assertions about the quality of the software than by observing
the behavior of systems so configured.

Unless you happen to have every PC in the market, it's hard to make claims
that are not merely anecdotal.

However, Mr. Williams is a system/network admin working in an organization
with machine counts in the multi-hundreds, and I'm assuming that his advice
stems from experience on numerous machines and configurations. I tend to lis-
ten to folks like that, and in general to people who buy stuff and plop in
front of others for a living, especially if they have a vested interest in 
making sure it's reliable.

Yo, Adam! Is this anectdotal evidence or have you chucked bunches of Diamond
drivers for crackin' up systems?  Or something in between?

Reliance on anecdotal evidence is VERY DANGEROUS. Hardware, drivers, and 
bug fixes are shifting under our feet like sand, the next MS service pack
may fix the bugs you're griping about (while perhaps, giving you a fresh
new batch to enjoy). Open source is nice becasue you can look at the al-
gorithms, and the originators are very specific about their progress, 'cuz
if they aren't you won't bother to download (among other reasons).

                                                             Regards,
                                                               ---> RGB <---