Cool flash video of a Linux, not ready for primetime, desktop

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This is a pretty cool video of is being done with the Linux desktop. Take a look, you'll be pretty amazed, as this is done on Linux without a very expensive video card. If you have just about any Nvidia card produced within the last 2 or 3 years with 128 megs or more of memory you can run this fairly easily on several current Linux distributions.

Nividia is pretty much required as they are the only ones with good Linux drivers for their cards. Development is ongoing to get this to work with ATI cards too, but it lags what can be done with Nvidia and requires a lot of configuration work.

http://youtube.com/p.swf?video_id=C...5cZk/2.jpg&t=OEgsToPDskLnhJYAtTrdNZ-Gi_4cV-yJ

 

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That's bloody awesome!

I want it!

 

I think what is being done with Compiz and Beryl (those are the software packages that are being used to create these effects) is pretty cool too.

 

ATI Works too.

I've got it running on Kubuntu 6.06 with an ATI X1400 and there's no lag, my laptop handles it well. Nvidia isn't totally required, yes they do have better drivers but it works well with ATI cards too.

There's some configuration involved, but if you find a good tutorial then the scripts etc needed are there for you and you just copy and paste the code, so it's not that hard.

 

Ummm.... I beg to disagree. I've spent days trying to get this to run, and I can't. Why? Because when the kernel loads the fgrlx module at Xserver startup my screen goes black, the backlight comes on, and then the cpu goes into a race condition. I can't switch to another console, use the three finger salute, etc... to get out of this condition.

How do I know the cpu goes into a race condition? About 15 seconds after the backlight on my laptop monitor comes on the cooling fan goes to high--it never does that under normal usage unless I am doing something that calls for 100% cpu usage such as compiling a kernel or something along those lines of needing computing horsepower--and then stays there while the air at the outlet vent keeps on getting hotter all the time. If I don't shut the system down it will shutdown on it's own--just power off....

ATI's drivers are so buggy that using them with certain combinations of hardware just isn't possible. My laptop is one of them.

 

Of course it depends on individual circumstances as ATI driver support in Linux isn't the greatest - but it is possible.

It's probably much easier on Nvidia as the drivers are better and you need fully working drivers etc to get it working.

 

Ummm.... If you will reread my original post you will see that's basically what I said. The clear implication of my post is if you don't want to run into possible problems use Nvidia rather than ATI video cards as no can tell beforehand if the drivers will work with their combination of hardware resources. Clearly, if you already have an ATI card it's worth trying to make it work as I did, but don't suppose it's always going to work. With a supported Nvidia card it's a pretty safe assumption. I even get 3D hardware accelleration with the open source radeon driver on my old desktop with a Radeon 7000.

Besides Nvidia cards support aiglx (?) which is better than straight glx and the way things are moving. ATI cards do not.

 

With AMD purchasing ATI recently, we may see the at least partial open-sourcing of ATI's Linux drivers. That would mean that in a pretty short period of time, Linux developers would be able to bring ATI's drivers up to par with NVIdia's offerings... if they decide to do it. Intel has recently done the same, and we're already beginning to see the benefits.

 

I agree. I sure hope AMD starts releasing the specs so the open source devs can fix the problems. Until they do though, the only real choice for 3D acceleration is Nvidia.