
Nvidia Removed Linux Driver Feature Due to Windows - simula67
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-linux-basemosaic-ubuntu-parity,24519.html
======
betterunix
Can someone please explain why "feature parity" even matters here? If Nvidia
can do something with GNU/Linux that is technically hard to do with Windows,
why shouldn't they do it? In what way does it make sense to force technical
limitations of Windows on GNU/Linux users?

~~~
jlgreco
How is this a limitation with Windows even? I'm sure Windows can have more
than 3 displays, so why does Nvidia have this restriction on _either_
platform?

~~~
anonymfus
Because they sell "professional" Quadro/Tesla cards with this feature enabled
at enormous prices.

~~~
jlgreco
Aaaah... so this probably is not about Linux vs. Windows, but rather
_actually_ about 'GeForce GTX 560 Ti' vs. Quadro. They aren't worried about
driving people away from Windows, they are worried about cannibalizing Quadro
sales.

There is probably a lot of use cases for many monitors that don't really
require Windows (perhaps pro power-users, like traders, who need lots of
browser windows open at once), so they need to ensure that their premium cards
retain their edge even on Linux.

That makes much more sense.

~~~
gizmo686
But how many of those users would need to use NVIDIA's drivers? As I
understand it, the benefit of NVIDIA's drivers over Noueveau is performance,
not basic hardware support. If all you need is many monitors for web browsers,
then you should not have a problem using Noueveau.

~~~
ginko
This sort of logic completely baffles me.

People buy hardware to use their advertised features. If you are the type of
person that only needs 2D rendering and video then you should use an Intel
GPU. I would assume people who buy a state-of-the-art dedicated GPU want to
use them for actual 3D acceleration.

~~~
thristian
Or possibly the advertised feature they're interested in is 'ridiculous number
of attached monitors'. Intel GPUs generally only have a couple of display
connectors; if you want a card with a lot of physical ports you'll want to buy
a discrete GPU whether or not it support 3D acceleration.

------
kleiba
NVidia has a history of not playing nice with Linux. Allow me to point to a
small comment Linus Torvalds made on Nvidia a while ago (NSFW):

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVpOyKCNZYw&t=1m41s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVpOyKCNZYw&t=1m41s)

------
davexunit
I just use the nouveau drivers. They perform well enough, cause me far less
xorg.conf headaches, and are free.

~~~
barrkel
GTX 670 in a motherboard with a UEFI BIOS, running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, the
nouveau driver crashes whenever you move a window too quickly.

Verified on three machines with identical hardware.

AMD doesn't have decent drivers even for Windows. (By decent, I mean less than
1 graphics-related crash on average per year.)

~~~
asdasf
I'm always amazed when I see stuff like this. Nvidia's windows drivers crash
all the time too. Neither company is capable of producing quality drivers, yet
fanboys still want to insist one of the turds is made of gold.

~~~
taspeotis
> Nvidia's windows drivers crash all the time too

Counter anecdote mode: engage!

As an owner of many Nvidia cards, I find they crash infrequently, and when
they do it's because:

* I was running Windows 8 Preview and pre-release Nvidia drivers

* There was some sort of hardware problem with my systems

I have used four ATI/AMD graphics cards over the years. Not all of them were
negative experiences, but none of them were relatively more positive than
using Nvidia hardware.

~~~
dman
Counterpoint - ive found amd drivers to be pretty good on linux and they
support multiple rotated monitors and color matching across multiple monitors
much better than nvidia.

------
mdmarra
Is it fair to say that this is "due to windows" though? I don't see anything
in this article saying that this directive came at the urging of Microsoft or
anyone on the Windows team there. It's entirely possible that this can be some
internal nVidia political nonsense happening.

------
fmax30
I think it is time to reverse the nvidia driver v295 to make way for an open
source nvidia driver which supports upto n screens.

------
mkr-hn
Who is "sandipt" and what is their connection to Nvidia? I don't see any flair
or profile information (on the forum) to indicate that this is an actual staff
member, or one with authority to comment on the motivations behind this
change. I see no basis for all this speculation.

~~~
moocowduckquack
"Sandpit" sounds like the name given to an account that multiple people may be
using in a test environment, rather than something meant as an actual ID.

~~~
wiml
"sandipt", not "sandpit". I assume it's a first-name-last-initial style
username of someone named Sandip.

~~~
amboar
The article currently says "Sandpit"

~~~
mkr-hn
The name on the forum thread is sandipt. This is what happens when lazy non-
journalists fail to do the most basic detail checking. Or seek a more credible
source. Or seek an official comment.

~~~
amboar
Yeah, I read through the forum to set whether this was a mistake in the
article. I think my point was that the lazy author was the source of confusion
of the name.

------
Nux
Maybe a late response to Linus :)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_36yNWw_07g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_36yNWw_07g)

~~~
utopkara
Obviously, the feelings are mutual.

------
_JamesA_
What does this mean exactly?

I'm currently running an MSI 660 PE Ti with 3 screens in TwinView mode with
driver version 319.49. This gives a total desktop of 4960x1920 in landscape-
portrait-landscape layout.

I would like to get another 660 Ti and add another 3 screens in TwinView. Is
that even possible?

------
antimora
This might seem unrelated but I have a question to the crowd related to 3
monitor setup with Ubuntu.

Does anyone know how to use Intel + Nvidia on Ubuntu 12.04 (or later)? I was
able to do this in the past with Windows but I can't get it working with
Ubuntu.

------
qwerta
Something similar with AMD. My flex graphic supports 4 screens. At some point
proprietary drivers dropped this and now it only supports 3 screen. Open-
source driver works just fine with 4.

------
legulere
An important rule for software is to not take features away. People will
complain even if it's an obscure feature they don't even use.

------
frank_boyd
It's probably time to vote with our wallets again.

------
static_typed
It's something a little like this:

"We are altering the deal, pray we do not alter it any further".

Closed source, closed negotiating position.

When you buy one of these cards, you are already assuming the position to get
kicked, you are just hoping not to get kicked too hard or too many times in a
row. Doesn't seem like a sensible thing to do really.

------
static_typed
Oh, you bought Nvidia? Well, that was your first problem, and fault.

The Intel graphics are not so fast, but at least a big chunk are open source.

~~~
pyre
I'm unaware of the ability to drive a 4-monitor xorg desktop off of Intel
graphics. The user in question here was attempting to do such a thing, which
was supposed to be possible with the Nvidia cards. If his/her 'problem' was in
purchasing Nvidia cards, then what would your recommendation be for creating
such a setup be?

~~~
jeffasinger
Not the OP, but I think the open source AMD drivers support both DisplayPort
and Dual Link DVI, so there's probably several cards from them that would
work.

------
dallagi
Does this issue affect FreeBSD drivers as well?

