NVIDIA 3D Under Linux

Linux, Continued

Well, let me try to give you my opinion on that. Other people may have different reasons. I like Linux because today it has become easy enough to install and use, while offering a huge wealth of free software based on it. It is one of the securest operating systems out there, which is why you'll find it in many networks or on a very large percentage of web servers that are the permanent target of hackers. It is a pure 32 bit operating system and therefore automatically superior to Windows95, 98 or the upcoming Windows ME. It has turned out to be a lot securer than WindowsNT or Windows 2000. It is available for virtually any platform and processor type, you will find it on any kind of server, cluster system, workstation, PC, notebook and handheld device.

What used to be an operating system for freaks, hackers and geeks has now become a valid platform for everyone. Today's Linux comes with a GUI (graphical user interface), similar to the Windows desktop and it's available in several different distributions. You only pay for the process that it took the publisher to compile all the software on various CDROMs, which is significantly less than what you'd have to pay for any Microsoft OS. Included in those distribution packages is often a complete StarOffice Suite, zillions of utilities, games, software for virtually any of your needs and of course a wealth of software development tools for all the ones who want to contribute their own software to the Linux community.

Linux didn't use to be about money. Linus Torvalds wanted to create a free operating system and free software around it. That's still valid, but many companies have realized the importance of Linux and so the big bucks are rolling all over Linux now too. Intel is interested in Linux as an OS for their upcoming IA64 architecture, as found in the more or less soon to be released 'Itanium' processor. RedHat, a US Linux distribution, went to the stock market last year and has now a scary (or was it 'impressive'?) market cap. While many people in the Linux community, including myself, didn't welcome RedHat's IPO, it shows how valuable Linux has become. Transmeta has based their Crusoe processor completely on Linux and there is much much more.

Nowadays, the usage of a PC goes well beyond letter writing, spreadsheets and web browsing. More and more people enjoy playing 3D games on their systems as well. To make Linux an operating system for the masses it has to offer 3D gaming abilities too. That's why I finally decided to see if NVIDIA's recent efforts to supply unified Linux drivers for their 3D cards have made Linux an OS for 3D-gamers as well. I was very pleased with the results.

Installing NVIDIA's Latest Linux Drivers

One thing I have to give Linux. It's still not by far as easy to install drivers under Linux as it is under Microsoft's operating systems. Therefore I will dedicate a rather longish and hopefully detailed enough chapter to this issue. I have seen numerous news group postings of people who had problems installing the NVIDIA drivers, and luckily most of them can be solved.

NVIDIA's Unified Driver Architecture

I don't know about you, but I have heard about the wonderful 'unified driver architecture' so often from marketing people and out of press releases, that I got almost immune to it. For most Windows users this isn't really a big deal. We are used to get Windows98 and Windows2000 drivers for our hardware and why would anyone care if those drivers work for other hardware as well?

The story is a lot different for Linux users. Up until recently Linux users had to get used to the fact that drivers for special hardware took quite a while to become available. In many cases someone out of the worldwide Linux community wrote a driver by himself, because the vendors couldn't be bothered to support Linux. Today things are improving and you'll find that the Linux distribution package you just bought is already supporting most of your system components. The story is still a bit tough in the fast changing graphics card market though. You might be able to easily get a driver for the 2D-functionality of your card, but once it comes to 3D-support things look rather grim. That's why NVIDIA's unified Linux driver model seems like a real blessing. Regardless if you've got a TNT2, Vanta, TNT2 Ultra, GeForce SDR, GeForce DDR, GeForce2 GTS, GeForce2 MX, Quadro, Quadro2 or the upcoming new 3D-solution from NVIDIA, they all work with the one driver set. In fact, after the installation you can easily swap one of those cards with another, restart your Linux box and the system will run. For Linux users this is a great advance!