The main problem with Linux is hardware compatibility. Manufactures produce drivers for Windows and Mac, but hardly ever for Linux. Luckily, the linux community create drivers for 1000s of different pieces of hardware. However, sometimes they don’t work great. One of the worst hardware manufactures for Linux is ATi. If you are using Linux or want to start using it, it is far better to use nVidia, all their cards have great support.

For years, the Linux community has had to make ATi drivers. However recently, ATi have create their own drivers for ATi Radeon 8500 & above. People, such as myself, who have older cards have to use the binary driver. They are generally good, but they have their issues. One of the big issues is 3D acceleration. For some reason, they only come with 2D support. Finally, I have got full 3D acceleration.

It is very simple to do. All you need to do is go to the terminal and type ’sudo aptitude install libgl1-mesa-dri’, and let your computer do the rest. Once done, type ‘glxinfo’ into the terminal, you will see that you have 3D acceleration enabled.

This will work with both ‘ati’ and ‘radeon’ binary drivers. Personally I recommend you use the radeon driver, it has better performance for the radeon cards. For people who have an 8500 or above, you may want to consider using the binary ‘radeon’ driver than the official ATi drivers, it has been proven that you can get a far greater performance using the ‘radeon’ driver than the official ATi drivers, as much as 20 to 30fps more.