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AMD Software Linux

AMD Backs openSUSE with Huge New Infrastructure 117

Posted by CowboyNeal from the money-where-mouth-is dept.
apokryphos writes "AMD has helped sponsor the progress of openSUSE with leading-edge hardware and development expertise. "AMD is helping to ensure that the openSUSE Build Service continues to be an important collaboration and development platform for developers of all distributions," said Terri Hall, AMD vice president of Commercial Systems Marketing. Are these continued announcements of huge support from large OEMs an indication of a new era?"
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AMD Backs openSUSE with Huge New Infrastructure More

AMD Backs openSUSE with Huge New Infrastructure

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  • microsoft connection? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by datapharmer ( 1099455 ) on Thursday August 09, 2007 @10:19PM (#20178405) Homepage
    I'm curious about this sudden SUSE push and the recent deals with Novell and Microsoft. I'm curious as to what is going on behind the scenes... is Microsoft working on a linux GUI? Something even more sinister? Or perhaps it is just a coincidence... but then again I don't believe in those.
    • I'm glad I was not the only one thinking that.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by swokm ( 1140623 )
      I think everyone has to admit that if Novell plays their cards right, they have a real shot at eventually winning a large portion of the enterprise desktop as well as the back end. IMHO. I like SUSE quite a bit, anyway. And I think AMD sees that a possible low-power platform win over Intel (those'll be harder and harder to come by).

      As for MS... they think of Vista as their linux GUI, don't they? ;) If I had that much money, I'd invest in ever competitor too... you never know.

      BTW, made account to thank the O

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by pravuil ( 975319 )

        Novell does have an opportunity but so does Red Hat. They both can actually do good and no one would be the wiser. While Novell has higher stock volume, Red Hat has a strong enough price to compensate for volume.

        In terms of increasing competition within the Linux market, it's nothing new. I've read reports/articles of MS trying to divide the community. The community does a fine job doing it itself and for good reason. Everybody believes in their product especially when they do have something that they feel

      • I've moved along the linux trail for some time now, starting out on Red Hat years ago, moving to the noob friendly Mandrake (at the time, then Mandriva), Slackware for a while, Debian more recently, and now SuSE.

        For me, SuSE has been the kindest for workstation, notebook & server deployment.

        I know SuSE is very similar to RH/Fedora and a few other distros out there, it just seems to be more polished/finished than the others. On top of that, I don't have an issue with Novell - it seems a lot of people her

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by mrsteveman1 ( 1010381 )
          The installer and the Yast system were enough for me to stick with Opensuse, I have found both to be invaluable daily. I also like the fact that the X11 and curses versions of Yast are equivalent in functionality, since you can always configure the system easily over SSH or when X11 isn't even installed. In particular I like the partitioner (for its LVM and crypto features), the user, network services, and runlevel configuration panels.

          In addition on my laptop with opensuse I was able to fix X11 from a grap

    • Re:microsoft connection? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by apokryphos ( 869208 ) on Thursday August 09, 2007 @10:47PM (#20178583) Homepage
      The Microsoft deal on interoperability and customer patent protection is still ongoing but more in the background these days. The real "new push" is coming from Novell's relationship with IBM (and AMD, like this story; and I'm sure you know about Dell). For example IBM and Novell just launched a Big Green Linux Initiative [zdnet.co.uk], or how IBM, Novell Team to Tap Open Source App Servers [tmcnet.com], and the list goes on (see LWE announcements, or Google News). Novell is really trying to push Linux on the server -- and just as importantly -- the desktop into the Enterprise, and they're making major deals with large OEMs (that is, AMD, IBM/Lenovo, Dell) to make it happen.

    • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      "Or perhaps it is just a coincidence... but then again I don't believe in those."

      Funny, I was just about to say the same thing. Wait a minute! Who are you and how do you read my mind?

  • To AMD: (Score:5, Insightful)

    by pajeromanco ( 575906 ) on Thursday August 09, 2007 @10:27PM (#20178433)
    Save your hardware infrastructure and give me a god damn free driver.

    Signed,

    ATI user.

    • Re:To AMD: (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Zantetsuken ( 935350 ) on Thursday August 09, 2007 @10:48PM (#20178585) Homepage
      No - I don't even care if its free (F/LOSS free). As long as it fucking works and gives me 3D hardware acceleration under Linux on my laptop, I'll be happy (Radeon xpress 200m)...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sqrt(2) ( 786011 )
        I'm typing this on an Acer Aspire 5100 with the same graphics and using Compiz-fusion with most of the plugins enabled. Ubuntu 7.04 has a feature to download and install the needed "restricted" files.
        • I'll have to give Ubuntu a go on that machine again then... Would your Acer machine also happen to have an internal Broadcom Airforce (don't remember which exactly) wifi working "out of the box" (or close to out of box) under recent Ubuntu spins? I've gone from Fedora to Debian so far, but somewhat stayed away from Ubuntu because it indescribably feels somehow "dirty" to me...

          As an added note, I haven't gotten that ATI graphics to work using either the ATI drivers from the ATI/AMD site or any of the ones

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by sqrt(2) ( 786011 )
            The wireless works perfectly with <a href="http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=197 102">this</a> (First link in the thread is the deb). Second option listed there uses ndiswrapper and the closed source driver. I use the first one with out any problems, although I've not done any serious testing for range to compare the two and my laptop is only 10ft away from the access point most of the point. Not quite out of the box support, but it's getting there.
      • And doesn't package drivers with show stopping bugs for an OS that is listed as supported. Yep I used Suse and I live in the US, don't know if the drivers were available in other countries though, but open source drivers that "worked" were free.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by narfbot ( 515956 )
        Good news! The Xpress 200m is supported by the open source r300 driver. Yes, it was reverse engineered with no help from ATI. It can play ET, run googleearth from what I've tried. AND it's stable. That's a far difference from when I tried fglrx with my Xpress 200m.

        • It wouldn't even recognize my Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Edition. I spent $250 on that thing only to get fundamentally broken bus management on OSX and no 3D at all on Linux.

          -:sigma.SB

        • How would I go about enabling the r300 driver? Right now I'm still using the "ati" driver in xorg, and it certainly doesn't seem to accelerate anything. I've read about r300, but I can't figure out how to actually use it. Does it only exist in unreleased versions of X?

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by narfbot ( 515956 )
            "ati" is the same thing. That is typically the 2D portion of the driver.

            Right now, I'm using a Mesa and drm git checkout. I don't think this support will be in 7.0.x. Maybe it will be in Mesa 7.1.

      • Re:To AMD: (Score:4, Insightful)

        by BESTouff ( 531293 ) on Friday August 10, 2007 @04:15AM (#20180277)

        No - I don't even care if its free (F/LOSS free)

        You already had your non-free driver, it's called frglx. It kind of worked for some cards, but exactely because it's NOT Free, it's never been improved to work on newer kernels, with newer Xorg techniques (compositing, randr, ttm, etc.), or with all kind of cards.

        If one day ATI releases another version of their proprietary monster for the card of your choice, you'll have no warranty it'll work the year after. Just because you didn't care.

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by SunTzuWarmaster ( 930093 )
          For those of us who have installed, uninstalled, updated, removed, forcibily found, hand-loaded, mod-probed, and editted the dreaded /etc/X11/xorg.conf file for:

          it is called fglrx.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by LWATCDR ( 28044 )
          "If one day ATI releases another version of their proprietary monster for the card of your choice, you'll have no warranty it'll work the year after. Just because you didn't care."
          I would like good free ATI drivers. I would take good drivers for ATI.
          But I have to say your statement is baloney. You have NO warranty that a free driver will work a year or two after. If the person maintaining it decides not to and no picks it up it will die. There are a good number of Linux drivers that have bit rotted over the

      • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

        by Tovok7 ( 948510 )

        No - I don't even care if its free (F/LOSS free). As long as it fucking works and gives me 3D hardware acceleration under Linux on my laptop, I'll be happy (Radeon xpress 200m)...

        You should care because only a free driver really ensures that it "fucking works" now, tomorrow and even in a few years when AMD dropped support for the driver because the card is no longer sold. A free driver has the big advantage that we (you, me, everybody) can fix and improve it and give the improved driver away to the community, so everybody benefits.

      • "As long as it fucking works and gives me 3D hardware acceleration under Linux on my laptop, I'll be happy (Radeon xpress 200m)..."

        I was happy to see that once AMD bought ATI, one of the first thing they began doing was releasing proprietary closed source Linux drivers. Prior to that ATI just referred you to a link to the open source third party versions. I will be honest, I do not run ATI hardware, so I cannot comment on the quality of the driver, but here [amd.com] it is.

      • I have one of those cards and actually found that Mandriva a fix for it when I went to GUADEC and was given a free Mandriva-loaded USB stick (I was so pleased I wrote this on the GNOME Love Wall http://flickr.com/photos/pvillavi/899547399/ [flickr.com] ). I've filed a bug on Ubuntu here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/restrict ed-manager/+bug/130025 [launchpad.net] which should contain the options you need to put into xorg.conf on whatever distro you're on (most of them are probably redundant, but I don't have to time to go

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by the_brobdingnagian ( 917699 )
      I don't care about drivers from them. I want good and public documentation of the hardware.
    • Or at least one where I can have a different resolution on the second monitor. Currently, that has me f****d.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by empaler ( 130732 )

        Or at least one where I can have a different resolution on the second monitor. Currently, that has me f****d.
        That's because you're not supposed to have two different monitors. Don't you see? Instead of hogging that power-hungry 15" CRT as a second monitor, buy 22" LCDs. In pairs.

    • Save your hardware infrastructure and give me a god damn free driver.

      Unfortunately I could not agree with you more. I used to be an ATI fan through and through. But when they changed their policy I could not get proper drivers support for my OSes I switched to its main competitor and haven't looked back. But I also suspect the competitor's driver problems with Vista are related.

      Seems like hardware vendors are going to have to align themselves with an OS. Similar problems exist with wireless cards and

  • From the Build Service End User page:

    The openSUSE End User Frontend offers distribution users easy access to all software, which has been built in the openSUSE Build Service. You can easily search for software for your distribution. This includes all openSUSE, SUSE Linux Enterprise and foreign distributions (Fedora, Mandriva, Debian, Ubuntu).

    How is this different than apt-get, or even just using Google to search for packages?

    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Apart from having a single repository for packages for many major distros, the BUILD SERVICE actually will BUILD the packages for you if you are a package maintainer. For multiple architectures. Hence it's name - the BUILD SERVICE.

      Maybe something about the name wasn't clear? Perhaps you should read about the BUILD SERVICE [opensuse.org] then.

      The obvious benefit for end users becomes that regardless of what you use for package management, if the package maintainer opts to use the openSUSE build service, you can point yo

    • Re:How is the build service different from apt (Score:5, Informative)

      by spyowl ( 838397 ) on Thursday August 09, 2007 @10:58PM (#20178653)

      How is this different than apt-get, or even just using Google to search for packages?


      You missed the part where it's a build service for developers. If you are a developer and have used or looked at their tools and interface, you'll find it will save you a lot of time, hassle and resources - write your software, upload it, and have it packaged and readily available for multiple distributions on multiple architectures. Your package has dependencies that have been updated by their developers? No problem, the service will automatically trigger to rebuild your package using the updated dependencies. Read more here [opensuse.org].

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by swokm ( 1140623 )

        you'll find it will save you a lot of time, hassle and resources

        Exactly! I'm not entirely sure HOW AMD will leverage that, but if all the business world ends up with OLPC type laptops/desktops that have low-power "exotic/embedded" processors, I'm pretty sure this build system will fully exploit features of any chips that come out of AMD. (except, perhaps for ATI chips) ;)

        Of course, if those machines also run SUSE, well then logically you might as well use SUSE on the back end. Maybe on AMD... that is how I see business procurement agents thinking, anyway. Novell certai

      • Including windows?

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by spyowl ( 838397 )

          Including windows?

          I don't know about that one - the requirements being a Linux distro having a sane package management system, and MS Windows possessing none of those qualities would probably make it a little hard one would think.

          Although I agree it was a nice thought - if MS had a similar service for 3rd party vendors or packagers to upload their work, then generate binaries for Windows XP, 2000, 2003, Vista, 32-bit, 64-bit, etc.; and have a similar simple interface to locate, download and install those ap

  • That's real nice... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kilgortrout ( 674919 ) on Thursday August 09, 2007 @10:43PM (#20178539)
    but if you really want to help give us some open source drivers for ati graphics cards or at least closed source ones that don't totally suck.

  • Leading Edge (Score:5, Funny)

    by Iam9376 ( 1096787 ) on Thursday August 09, 2007 @10:44PM (#20178553)

    AMD has helped sponsor the progress of openSUSE with leading-edge hardware and development expertise.


    So they donated Intel processors?

  • Excellent Question! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by cyphercell ( 843398 ) on Thursday August 09, 2007 @10:55PM (#20178633) Homepage Journal
    I was just thinking the same thing, the past several days have been very dynamic in the way of licensing/FOSS in big business. We have sun, bittorrent, mysql, amd, proprietary AV systems, a DUI driver wins code, NewYorkCountryLawyer [slashdot.org], Dell with on-board virtualization, openSuse, and well I'm sure I'm missing something somewhere because /. has had a good story every couple of hours for a few days now. It's almost scary. Ooh, Linux kernel developers coming under fire for not paying enough attention to the desktop, too. Anyone know how Vista is doing these days?
    • Oooh, just browsed and found another one. the Red Cross vs Johnson & and Johnson (the baby co.) fighting over a red cross used in trademark. This might be the "year of the linux desktop" scenario where things seem more intense than they are, but I can't deny what I've read lately.
    • We only talk about Vista when there's nothing more important to discuss.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by trifish ( 826353 )
      Anyone know how Vista is doing these days?

      Yup, our website stats: 10% and growing constantly.
      • not really surprising given how most OEMs are practically forcing it on home users (yes I know a few still offer XP on selected systems and that you can buy a buisness version and downgrade if you have appropriate media but most home users would never think of that and probablly don't have the approrpriate media for a downgrade either).
    • I think over the past few months, Linux has been inching toward that magical critical mass that the OSS evangelists have predicted would come some day*...

      I mean... all the signs are in place. I've toyed around with linux on and off for years, and have *always* reverted back to Windows or Mac OS after a few months full of small frustrations.

      Now I've got Ubuntu on my Mac, and have no intention of switching back. Microsoft's latest operating system is horrible -- and the general public realizes it. Major ve
      • Yep, that's what I'm talking about right there. The Open source world seems to be advancing quite nicely.

  • Debian GNU/Linux (Score:3)

    by wikinerd ( 809585 ) on Thursday August 09, 2007 @10:59PM (#20178659) Journal
    I would very much prefer them to support Debian rather than openSUSE.

    • Re:Debian GNU/Linux (Score:4, Insightful)

      by T-Ranger ( 10520 ) <jeffw AT chebucto DOT ns DOT ca> on Thursday August 09, 2007 @11:07PM (#20178703) Homepage
      Novell hasn't had the greatest year. I guess if they sell of one of their two or three corporate jets, and Debian picks it up, then Debian may begin to impress the likes of AMD.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pugdk ( 697845 )
      Amen to that.

    • That's a problem with linux.. (Score:5, Funny)

      by brxndxn ( 461473 ) on Friday August 10, 2007 @05:38AM (#20180637)
      I would very much prefer them to support Debian rather than openSUSE.

      Well I'd rather them support Ubuntu and my friend would rather Redhat. My dog likes Gentoo because he loves compiling.

      Every time a company tries 'throwing a bone' to the open source community and chooses a system to support (which will inevitably filter to the other distros), the linux geeks go, "But wait.. I like this distro instead."

      Just be happy; it's linux.

  • Are these continued announcements of huge support from large OEMs an indication of a new era?

    It's an indication that OEMs believe that the open source and free software communities have enough clout to have major impacts on business markets in computer technologies. In most markets, if a proprietary software company angers technology consumers to a sufficient degree, enough members of these communities band together to provide a workable alternative. Mozilla aside, witness the results of MySQL, Apache and the KHTML team. MySQL and Apache have a huge market penetrations, and KHTML is now preinst

  • I think its nice that thier doing this, computers for kids and all. Kinda reminds me of when Icy Bro collaborated with Milli Vanilli back in the 90's. http://www.freewebs.com/icybro [freewebs.com]
  • ...but who is going to back up AMD?
    AMD asks for 1.5 billion [fudzilla.com]
  • "You may make and distribute unlimited copies of the Software outside Your organization provided that: 1) You receive no consideration; and, 2) you do not bundle or combine the Software with another offering""

    "You may not: (1) reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Software"

    "The Software may contain an automatic disabling mechanism that prevents its use after a certain period of time"

    "No title to or ownership of the Software is transferred to You .. You acquire only a license to use the So

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by krgallagher ( 743575 )
      What's the whole point of openSUSE again. If the GPL is such an onerous license then why don't Novell strip all GPL licensed code from SUSE Linux, after all, what's only valuable is the kernel, right 'elsewhere' ...

      You should have read the next paragraph:

      The Software is a modular operating system. Most of the components are open source packages, developed independently, and accompanied by separate license terms. Your license rights with respect to individual components accompanied by separate license t

  • No matter what step Novell takes, till the deal with Microsoft is alive, I'll never touch or recommend this distro. Why AMD, IBM/Lenovo or others push openSUSE they doesn't like Debian's "Social Contract" [debian.org] or The Ubuntu Promise [ubuntu.com] ?

  • these companies would give a project money is to get something in return. Perhaps an "Optimized for..." labeling for their processor on that distro? Worked for tech n00bs on mp3 players and the like with Microsoft and their "guarantee" sticker on end-user products.
  • Are these continued announcements of huge support from large OEMs an indication of a new era?"

    only if it means there is finally support for these damn Broadcom wireless chips.

  • swell (Score:2)

    by Sloppy ( 14984 )

    Really, that's swell. But I didn't see anything about 3D chipset documentation. That means if I were to replace my computer today, it would probably have an Intel 965 chipset. (Sure, some people say it's "slow" but it's gotta be faster than my 7-year-old G400MAX. (Right? Anyone know?)) AMD, you don't happen to make processors that will plug into one of those motherboards, do you?

    It's weird for a hardware company to fund software whose users they're going to pressure into running on competing hardware.

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