[AG-TECH] LINUX vs Windows as a AG node Display system

[Doug Baggett]

Sure. That would be great! We are ordering a new AGP 8x motherboard with 
the Matrox P750 triplehead card. I don't know about support for XFree86 
on the P750, I'l have to check it out. I am hoping that since it's AGP 
8x and the mobo is 8x I might get some more performance out of it (more 
VIC windows). How do you handle things like DPPT? Just use VNC for linux?

-Doug B

Stephen Bosch wrote:

> Douglas Baggett wrote:
>
>> Do people on the list have opinions on LINUX vs Windows as a Display
>> system? When AG 1.x came out, linux did not really have that good
>> multi-monitor support. Now that XFree86 has come a ways, I was wondering
>> what people's experience has been with using LINUX as a Display system?
>> I am bit tired of fighting Windows monitor and device drivers for
>> multi-monitor displays (especially when the displays have different
>> resolutions). It seems Windows has a mind of it's own often changing
>> screen placement/order without the user doing anything (mainly in
>> between boots). Other issues include icons/task-bar migrating to
>> different screens when I don't want them to! I'm thinking one advantage
>> of LINUX would be having a set in stone config for XFree86 so that
>> NOTHING changes.
>
>
> I would no longer hesitate to suggest using Linux for display systems. 
> The multi-head support is much improved, and even if the XFree86 
> documentation remains nebulous the XF86Config parameters are much, 
> much simpler.
>
> I'm using a Matrox Parhelia 128 triple-head card. It works like a hot 
> damn. The drivers are supposed to be for Redhat, but I've extracted 
> them and used them successfully in Slackware. If you need OpenGL 
> support Matrox can provide you with beta 3d drivers (those work too).
>
> I haven't had any of the problems you describe in Linux, although 
> there is a bug in the way the Matrox drivers handle the framebuffer 
> (logging out of X caused the screen to blank. Not very convenient :) ) 
> The workaround is simple, though -- just don't use the framebuffer on 
> boot. That's mostly eye-candy anyway.
>
> If you need any help setting up multi-head support in Linux, let me know.
>
> -Stephen-
>

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