Sandy Bridge GPU and Linux support

So I saw Charlie had a rant up on Sandy Bridge Linux support, and it seemed a little odd to me. I'm not sure I see where the problem lies.

Based on reading what he wrote, it sounds like the issue is that driver release schedules in the open-source community are a little less...co-ordinated...than in the Windows world. Namely, that Intel cannot get ISVs (or FOSS projects) to incorporate drivers before the hardware launch for press reviewers. So he didn't have easy driver installation for his system. Which is pretty annoying I gotta admit, but that's part of reviewing new hardware on tight deadlines. I still remember having to recompile everything to get a system on the network with a BCOM 57xx Ethernet controller (and find the drivers online, which was annoying).

What's interesting is that it's clear you could recompile the drivers and any related components in the stack. It would just be a lot of work and might not be all that robust. Using Linux on unreleased hardware (i.e. Sandy Bridge at the moment), is really not an exercise for the faint-hearted.

Also, if it's a problem with a specific commercial OS (e.g. Ubuntu), perhaps it's best to ask them what's going on? Enabling Ubuntu support on Intel IGPs is both the responsibility of Intel and Ubuntu, and if they decided that it can wait a little while...that's what they want. That's part and parcel of how Ubuntu makes money - is providing support to end users.

Can anyone with perhaps more direct experience with Linux graphics comment on the issues here? It seems like this is relatively benign, given that products aren't on sale yet. Even if the release lags by a few days, it shouldn't be a huge issue...certainly some discrete graphics cards take a while to release their first Linux drivers.

David