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I would like to know please, what's the best driver: open source or manufacturer? And what's the difference between the two? I am having trouble with my ATD hd6470 in 11.10, and my system will not boot after I installed the proprietary drivers. Are there Open Source ones to fix the problem?

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closed as not a real question by Bruno Pereira♦, Lekensteyn, Uri Herrera, jrg♦, Marco Ceppi♦ Jan 3 '12 at 15:56

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4 Answers

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It depends on the driver. fglrx drivers (ATI/AMD) can cause problems as well as solve them. My recommendation is to stay with the open source driver unless you have a critical problem (e.g. blank screen) that can be solved in no other way.

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yes I have black screen on boot. now tell me the open source is the one already in ubuntu right. and the prprietry one is one downloaded from ati.com site right. I have it on flash drive. so can I put it in ubuntu? – simon Dec 23 '11 at 9:47
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It depends on the graphics card, but in general Proprietary drivers function better and grant better performance. They are designed by the manufacturer of the video card. However the open source drivers (as with other software) tend to have better reliability.

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I have ati hd6470 and 11.10 will not boot because of it so I thought maybe there is a open source to do it for me and fix my problem – simon Dec 22 '11 at 22:27
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Depends on who you ask and what you use the drivers for.

If there is an option, I prefer the open source and will sacrifice performance (to a point) to use open source over closed. Why ? Because you can report bugs and hope for a fix.

If you go closed source, performance will (usually) be better, but the cost is at a loss of support.

Understand, just because it is open source does not mean there is an easy or quick fix to driver problems, but it is not as if the closed source providers are known for their linux support either.

Better to determine what you need from a driver, evaluate if the open source driver meets your needs, and if not try the closed source.

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I have black screen and cannot boot – simon Dec 23 '11 at 9:47
I do not think your card is supported in linux, open source or proprietary. See wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Hardware. You can try the instructions here wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu . Perhaps an older version of Ubuntu, I am not sure. – bodhi.zazen Dec 23 '11 at 13:19
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I find that the open source drivers to be as good as the closed source for my Acer 5222 with AMD grahics card. Minecraft runs just as good with the open source ones.

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