Yesterday I installed Mepis 3.4 Linux distro on my second computer. During the process of the install it asked if I wanted to install an ati driver and I selected ok. Well Mepis installed just fine however when I tried to run a 3D program it ran fine for a few seconds and bam solid black screen. Ctrl-alt-backspace, ctrl-atl-delete or any other key combination would not get me out of this woe. Only option was to hit the reset button. Now Linux is suppose to be stable but yet I had to use the reset button after 5 minutes of use.
With Fedora Core 4 distro I followed detailed instructions on installing ati drivers. It only took a half an hour of 30 easy steps. When I was done the same thing happened. I ran a 3D program and bam 10 seconds later black screen exactly like Mepis. It was time for the happy reset button.
You might be thinking that I have a bad graphics card, I don’t. You see it works great with Windows XP and I didn’t have to follow 30 easy steps to install the ati drivers. All I had to do is download, double click, click on ok, I agree and next and reboot and I can run any 3D program I wish. I even had no issues installing beta ati drivers on beta Windows Vista and it worked great.
Just one more reason that shows with free Linux you get exactly what you pay for. You pay nothing and you get nothing.
