New ATI Video Driver Fixes GNOME 3 Issues

I found the performance and management of the Catalyst driver back in Fedora 13/14 to be so onerous that I was more than happy to run quickly back to the open-source radeon driver, which I'm continuing to use in Debian Squeeze, and which continues to perform well (and without complaint -- from it or me). My video chip is ATI Mobility Radeon 4200 HD for those keeping score.

Now that I hear about ATI trouble with GNOME 3 and with Unity, I'm also extremely happy to stick with Squeeze and GNOME 2. I've got things to do, and they don't include futzing with video drivers and desktop environments.

and they don't include futzing with video drivers and desktop environments.

I've reached my patience quota with ATI anyway Steve.....Either the open or closed drivers are giving me problems at all times now and I just stick with high level Intel chipsets or Nvidia. And yeah...the whole proprietary blob thingy....Others will mention it I know. Nvidia has been awful supportive of Linux even if they don't open their code....and their code works way better than any ATI I've used in the past 5 years.

Im also an ex-DAMMIT on linux user lasted all of 5 days when i discovered how awfull the linux Catalyst drivers were, stuck an Nvidia card in instead and relegated the DAMMIT to a windows machine.

Nvidia works pretty much out of the box, its a shame as the DAMMIT hardware is good but they cant write drivers to save their lives.

I've been happier with ATI Radeon cards, with the open drivers. My own experience with nVidia and their proprietary drivers has not been satisfactory (lock-ups requiring ssh-ing in from a second box, or even hard reboots).

Last time I bought a new ATI card (the nVidia card it was replacing had broken outright), it turned out the open driver wasn't ready for it yet (it was only $5 more and a bit newer than the one I knew had been working for some time already), and I ended up running it in frame-buffer mode for a few months, because I wasn't prepared to mess with the proprietary driver (else I could have got an equivalent nVidia card for the same price).

But then, I'm not a gamer, and am satisfied with any card that handles OpenGL well enough to run Tux racer, so I mostly use only older cards, from (and pre-tested by) the local Free Geek thrift-shop. Sometimes I get one or two cheap at the computer swap meet (which is being held less and less regularly).

Same here. Never had issues with NVidia.

My experience with the ATI cards I have come across are that the hardware is good but the drivers suck. Some say that is improving, but why take the risk?

I have a BFG GTS-250 overclocked card and it runs all the games I have here full-everything without even getting up a sweat, although I have to say Far Cry 2 with maxed out settings does makes the fan speed up a little :D

"But will it run Crysis?". Dunno, don't have a copy.