why not use vesa driver as X default?

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Wed, May 23, 2007 at 04:04:18PM -0400, Alex Maynard wrote:
> Based on some recent ubuntu installs where everything else
> "just worked" but X-windows (and the whole system) "just froze" I'm
> wondering why the drive in xorg.conf doesn't default to a more robust
> (if non-optimal) driver like vesa? There could always be a clear option to switch
> to a video card specific driver, but why not default to something that
> "just works" so as not to scare off new users?
> 
> Thanks to the good suggestion from one of the experts on this list,
> switching to vesa solved the problem for me twice on two different computers-- but
> as a newby-level user I would never have known to try that without outside help,
> which is kind of the point I am trying to make.
> 
> Probably there are some good reasons for the current defaults that I don't
> know about, but given all the recent posts about the "just works" aspects
> of linux I thought I would put that out as a question.

Well reasons not to use vesa:

-Much much slower

-Can't change resolutions on the fly (at least last I tried it)

-Only works if you have a vesa bios on your video card (many don't)

-Often can't control refresh rate only resolution resulting in annoying
 flicker (if using a CRT at least).

-Limited resolution choices may prevent using a decent resolution

--
Len Sorensen
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