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Xref: sserve comp.unix.sysv386:23924 comp.windows.x:45393 comp.os.linux:10442 comp.unix.bsd:5363 comp.os.mach:2174 comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc:21745 comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware:31563 Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386,comp.windows.x,comp.os.linux,comp.unix.bsd,comp.os.mach,comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!uunet!zeos!kgermann From: kgermann@zeos.com (Ken Germann) Subject: Re: Free software and the future of support for Diamond products Organization: Zeos International, Ltd Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1992 08:53:58 GMT Message-ID: <1992Sep20.085358.25938@zeos.com> Keywords: Diamond, free-software References: <1992Sep11.124831.10108@crd.ge.com> <1992Sep12.035549.4743@zeos.com> <1992Sep20.000851.2641@cbnewsj.cb.att.com> Lines: 83 In article <1992Sep20.000851.2641@cbnewsj.cb.att.com> dwex@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (david.e.wexelblat) writes: >In article <1992Sep12.035549.4743@zeos.com> kgermann@zeos.com (Ken Germann) writes: >> In article <1992Sep11.124831.10108@crd.ge.com> davidsen@crd.ge.com (bill davidsen) writes: >> >In article <1992Sep10.130359.24767@cbnewsj.cb.att.com>, dwex@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (david.e.wexelblat) writes: >> > >> >| Well, one of the responses to our Diamond mail survey was from Rick Kemp >> >| at SCO. I quote: >> >| >> >| We have no plans on supporting their cards at anything but >> >| 640x480 resolution. They have refused to tell us how their >> >| cards work, and we have told all of our distributors to >> >| discontinue carrying them (Gateway 2000 and Zeos). ZEOS isn't an SCO distributor. >> >| >> >| So we'll see. The fact that SCO is having trouble doesn't bode well >> >| for our winning this battle. I wanted to include the whole picture that has been painted. This is an excerpt from a message from the manager of product development at Diamond : First, SCO has _not_ contacted us about driver development for the SpeedStar 24X. Rick Camp spoke to me a number of months ago about Stealth drivers and was sent a card, never to be heard from again. >> > >> > Interesting, since SCO has a stealth X driver in their directory on >> >uunet. I have very little information about it beyond that. >> >-- >> The solution for the support of X/Windows in the Freeware arena or >> any other arena would be to design a VESA based driver for these >> software packages. It would greatly simplify the need to design >> specific drivers for specific cards. Granted the VESA drivers may not >> take advantage of the hardware specific to the card; but, there would >> still be a driver available until someone changes their minds. >> How difficult would it be to support a VESA based driver under Unix? >> This would be a place to start. >> >> >> The problems with the support arose with the Speedstar 24X and Diamonds >> proprietary technology used on the card. The Speedstar and Stealth >> are both supported by ODT 1.x and 2.x now. The generic TSENG drivers >> , I am told should work for the Speedstar (ET4000) based card. >> >> >> >> -- >[Sorry it took me so long to get back into the fray - I've been on vacation] > >Unless I've missed something, a VESA compliant board supports a BIOS standard, >not a register-level standard. Unix, like other protected-mode operating >systems, does not use the BIOS at all, except during boot. So there's >no such thing as a VESA-compliant driver under Unix, unless someone hacks >the kernel to allow this to work. > I would think that making a VESA compliant kernel/drivers for video would help cut down on development time for video drivers and help end users determine whether their newly purchased video card will work with X. I know as an end user I am always concerned about compatiblity issues. VESA support in Unix/X Windows would be a step in the right direction for graphics support and it would definitely solve some of the problems that Unix developers have with getting specs on the video cards from video card manufacturers. The only question that would need to be asked is : Is your card VESA compliant? If the answer to the questions is YES, XYZ's product will work with that video card. If it isn't compliant with VESA, a special driver would need to be written. The trend in the PC arena is most video cards are being designed to be VESA compliant. Diamond supports VESA on the 24x card in the VIDEO BIOS on the card. The biggest reason I am making this proposal is there is more of a trend in the industry to support MS Windows than there is with X and Unix. This trend will change over the coming years with the release of new processors and operating systems that will take advantage of these new processors. Where ever support for VESA Video Standards needs to start, now would be a good time to start it. AT&T, SCO , etc. should do some research into the feasibility of supporting the VESA Video standards. -- Ken Germann ZZZZ EEEE OO SSS ZEOS International, Ltd. support@zeos.com INET Z E O O S Technical Support Dept. uunet!zeos!support UUCP Z EE O O SS 530 5th Ave N.W. 800-228-5390 VOICE Z E O O S St. Paul, MN 55112 612-633-7337 ZZZZ EEEE OO SSS FAX 612-633-4607