John Carmack on SteamOS

AMD, Nvidia, ramp up Linux driver support after Valve’s SteamOS announcement

Drive support is ramping up for Nvidia and AMD video cards, largely in response to recent Steam announcements.  Largely hit or miss in the past, this should bring some good improvements to existing and even past cards.  Head on over to the source link for more. 

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2049369/amd-nvidia-ramp-up-linux-driver-support-after-valves-steamos-announcement.html

Video Reel: Arch Linux and KDE on NVIDIA SHIELD

Soapbox Stand: OpenGL vs. Direct3D

http://www.opengl.org

Yea, yea, yea, I know what you are thinking, “here we go again..”  Bear with me though, as after reading an interesting perspective from a real developer over Rage3D (see source link), things may not be as they seem today.  Technical jargon aside, he has a good point.  Read on to find out. 

Newsstand: Open GL 4.4

OpenGL 4.4 is out in the wild, with beta support so far from NVIDIA. Unfortunately at least at the moment, only newer cards are supported, and probably for good reason too.  Do take note that in order to use this, you likely will need to install the proprietary NVIDIA binary blob listed in the source link below, not the driver used by your specific linux distro, which is likely even older than the current NVIDIA driver set.  Even bleeding edge distros, such as Arch Linux, are using the 3.19 drivers.

Details:

• Binary filename:  NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-325.05.03.run
• Architecture Support (as of 7/24/13): 32/64 bit
• Packages available:  Solaris/FreeBSD

Source: https://developer.nvidia.com/opengl-driver

Fedora 17,18,19 Beta: A world of Nvidia

Installing proprietary video drivers, can be either easy, or very difficult.  There is no middle ground (well maybe you could Vesa as that).  Takes practice learning the proper gears to put in place for a given distro.  For Fedora, it was quite easy, and this guide below, will definitely get you on your way!

Link: http://www.if-not-true-then-false.com/2012/fedora-17-nvidia-guide/

How To Session: Installing your Nvidia Or ATI Card

Many times, especially in the ubuntu forums, there are tons of individuals who download the Nvidia or ATI (Tougher) driver ang even get as far was compiling the kernel for the driver, only to encounter issues.  I suggest not even messing with that driver. ATI really does dislike Linux, and you might as well not mess with the NVIDiA driver as well. Ask many on the web and youll get the same answer. You should use the widely acclaimed EnvyNG app. What is amazing about this app is it automattically installs the current stable driver, along with any dependencies needed, avoiding any headache to you and you system.

Installing EnvyNG , which is a fantastic program to install your ATI / or Nvidia driver automatically, is easy. This will also, in addition to the graphics driver, a repository addition , so your normal system updates will include the latest driver , when the EnvyNG developer decides to code the latest stable driver. The developed tends not to code , or push the Beta drivers, which are the latest on nvidia’s webside (do not know about ATI).  The developer will compile the latest stable driver and push that though you system updates.

Install EnvyNG by doing:

Gnome : sudo apt-get install envyng-gtk
KDE : sudo apt-get install envyng-qt

This can be also done via Synaptics Package manager under,System > Administration > Synaptics. From here check your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and make sure your driver, under device I believe a sub-entry for your video card should have a driver such as “ati” or “nvidia.”

-Nano