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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.mel.connect.com.au!news.mira.net.au!news.vbc.net!alpha.sky.net!news.sprintlink.net!news-chi-13.sprintlink.net!news.smartlink.net!news.rootsweb.com!uchinews!ncar!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!news.mathworks.com!fu-berlin.de!informatik.tu-muenchen.de!news From: Bernd Paysan <paysan@informatik.tu-muenchen.de> Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.apps,comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.os.linux.x,comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,misc.consumers Subject: Re: Why not buy Matrox Millennium Date: Thu, 08 Aug 1996 19:44:08 +0200 Organization: Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany Lines: 55 Distribution: world Message-ID: <320A2768.4919@informatik.tu-muenchen.de> References: <4j21ph$crr@slappy.cs.utexas.edu> <stephenkDvp30A.366@netcom.com> <4u7hv4$jcd@agate.nbnet.nb.ca> <slrn50epup.vrk.knaff@choiseul.inrialpes.fr> <4u9oeg$91j@rigel.tm.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de> <32093E50.39EB@aloha.net> <slrn50ipqh.a9.cbbrowne@dantzig.brownes.org> <32097C81.167EB0E7@star-gate.com> <3209F875.3652CCE1@pobox.com> <slrn50jupd.nc2.knaff@choiseul.inrialpes.fr> <4ucvq1$k55@solaris.cc.vt.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: hphalle9a.informatik.tu-muenchen.de Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.02 (X11; I; HP-UX A.09.01 9000/720) Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.apps:20067 comp.os.linux.development.system:29438 comp.os.linux.x:37613 comp.os.linux.hardware:46998 comp.os.linux.setup:67891 comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc:1006 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:4551 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:4313 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:25189 misc.consumers:93972 Giao Nguyen wrote: > > Alain Knaff (knaff@choiseul.inrialpes.fr) wrote: > : In <3209F875.3652CCE1@pobox.com>, Subhas Roy <subhas@pobox.com> wrote: > : :I think the real reason for Matrox not helping XFree86.org > : : is probably this: > : : > : : Matrox sold the specs of their cards to Xinside and MetroX. > : : Now, if Matrox gives the specs to Xfree for free, Xinside > : : or Metro might sue them. Matrox is afraid of that. No, that's not possible. Changing prices for some services can't be sued by anyone (except if it is abuse of a monopoly). However, the lower prices have to be guilty for everyone. Matrox announces a developer program, and you can register just tomorrow (ok, it originally was scheduled yesterday). > : Couldn't they just refund the purchase price of the specs to Xinside > : and MetroX, and thus remove all grounds for a suit. Certainly this > : purchase price is less than the sum of lost sales due to their > : "secrecy policy", isn't it? > > It's more complicated than that. MetroX and Xinside are making a profit from > this information. A refund of the purchase price would mean a loss to Xinside > and MetroX. A refund + loss of profit would amount to a loss to Matrox. If silk was only made in china (because noone else knew how to make silk), silk was very expensive. A monk then brought silk and sawgood for the plants these insects eat to europe (in his stick). Do you think the traders who made lots of money with silk could sue this man? The former chinese, yes, it was illegal, but the silk traders? If your sekret information you made profit from is no longer sekret, and (unlike the silk case) making information available (even without pruchasing anything) is perfectly legal for those that own the information (in this case: Matrox). > The answer is for XFree to purchase the same information. Now, there would > have to be a deal of somesort to compensate for the high prices of the > proprietary information that way everything would be competitive. As it is > XFree doesn't have any money so that idea goes out the window. > > All in all, I use a Matrox card and the Xinside server. It's worth the money. > It's fast. Is it better than XFree? In my opinions, yes. Even if Matrox > released the information, I think I would stick with the Xinside server > since it just simply works faster. Does it? A friend of mine could not see any differences on a Trio64 based Spea card. XFree is accelerated, too. Certainly, the Matrox Millenium is faster than the Trio64 chip. Having a font server, however, is a good option, anyway. -- Bernd Paysan "Late answers are wrong answers!" http://www.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/~paysan/