Ubuntu 10.04 + Nvidia FX proprietary drivers? Maybe not!

I never was a fan of Nvidia's graphic cards. I don't have a reason for this, but I simply prefer ATI's products. And after what Nvidia proprietary driver did when I activated it in Ubuntu 10.04, I surely won't be a fan of them ever. So here are the details. An AMD platform (32-bit), with a Nvidia FX 5600 graphic card and a fresh-installed Ubuntu 10.04.

Nvidia usually makes its own drivers for Linux distributions. These kinds of drivers are known as "proprietary drivers", which means that their code is made and developed by Nvidia developers. In Ubuntu, in case that something goes wrong (including a driver), developers (from anywhere in the world) start working (on open source code) immediately on a fix so that it is available as soon as possible in the Update Manager. But with Nvidia, the situation is different. Because it's a proprietary driver, Ubuntu's developers doesn't have access to the code (because it isn't a public or open source code), so they can't improve or fix it. Any user using a Nvidia graphic card under Ubuntu has to wait for Nvidia's developers in case that it appears a problem with the driver.

So here's my problem. After I activated Nvidia's driver (version 173), it asked for a reboot. Until then, everything worked fine. But after reboot...it happened...I don't know what. I can't even explain. Under the VGA port, the image was highly affected. I could hardly read something on the screen (the colors and the image were totally misplaced). The monitor (Samsung T220) was continuously warning me that the image is displayed in "not optimum mode", and even after I got into driver's settings and changed them from auto to 1680 x 1050 with 60 Hz, the situation remained the same. The image on the monitor was starting to color white at every 10 seconds, and I was afraid that this can burn the pixels or even broke the entire monitor.

On DVI, the situation was completely different. The image looked pretty OK, however, the monitor was still warning me that it is in "not optimum mode" and it was restarting at every 1-3 seconds. This happens both with driver version 173 which is recommended, and with version 96 to which I have access.

In now stuck on a desktop without any accelerated video driver, but at least, this works (even if it is quite slow). The only thing I can do is to hope and wait for Nvidia to update their stupid driver for Ubuntu 10.04. I don't know why, but I think that Nvidia won't change something here...I hope I'm wrong. I know that there are some open-source drivers for Nvidia called "Nouveau" but I observed that they are only for GeForce6 and above (mine is GeForce 5).

So, if you installed one of these drivers with problems, try to enter into "hardware drivers" to remove it, and then reboot. In this way, you will be able to use your computer.

If you know how to fix this, please let me know via a comment.

HTC has plans about launching an own OS, but how about Android and Windows Mobile?

HTC, which is the company that has about 30 mobile devices available at this moment, announced that it has plans about launching its own OS. I don't know what is in HTC's mind at this moment, because I think that this is a stupidity. It sold lots of devices, with both Windows Mobile and now mainly with Android (because they are migrating to Google's OS), and it wants its own OS.

If HTC will have its own OS, it will definitely compete with Google's Android, and this is something bad considering that HTC is making devices for Google (Nexus One). The relation between these two companies can get cold really fast if this is going to happen, considering that HTC is the main factor for Android's impressionable ascension on market.

I didn't even mention Windows Mobile because it is clearly going to...nowhere. Microsoft announced Windows Mobile 7 recently, which won't be having an unimportant feature (in Microsoft's vision), but one which everybody uses, "Copy & Paste". Additionally, Windows Mobile 7 won't have multi-tasking. And will be quite incompatible with earlier versions of Windows Mobile. So, in my opinion, Microsoft is going to destroy Windows Mobile....

HTC said that it thinks about its own OS because it want to reduce its dependence of outside developers. Wait a second...what dependence ?! What is HTC talking about ? Dependence on Android ? I don't think so. On Andoid, HTC can do what it wants. It implemented its Sense UI, and can implement many others, and even contribute to market.

I think that HTC should think again about this, because, Andoid is the best option for their devices (I don't think that they will be able to create something better, for the customers).