Okay, that was a catchy title but for the first time in my love affair with Ubuntu have I had an install failure. I tried to install Ubuntu on my Dell Inspirion 1505 and couldn’t get X11 to automatically configure. It was very dissappointing. It’s really not Ubuntu’s fault, it’s ATI’s because they didn’t open source their drivers. So my ATI Mobility x1400 video card wasn’t supported by X.org.
AMD has announced that they will be working on a strategy to open source drivers for their ATI hardware including their X1000 series and HD2000 series. It’s been a long time coming as any Linux desktop guy knew to go for the nVidia graphics card because they support open source.
I am still puzzled by hardware company’s protectiveness of their drivers are they really that big of a competitive advantage?
For more of Mark Hinkle, visit his EncoreOpus blog.