David Kanter (dkanter@realworldtech.com) on 1/3/11 wrote:
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>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

It's fairly common. The next release -after you buy your hw- of major distros, ubuntu/fedors/suse typically work flawlessly. The lag is there and has been there for a long time now. With SB it's acutere however.