Comment 51 for bug 121653

"The kernel freeze is approaching. The only suggestion from the devs is to blacklist the fglrx module. I.e. add a `/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-fglrx' with the content `blacklist fglrx' and reboot. This will deactivate 3D acceleration" ...

Not an optimal solution if a) you need 3D acceleration (game development, biomedical imaging, visualization, whatever), b) you want to run your display at full resolution (xorg's driver won't), c) You want to run Compiz, d) You want to use all the features of your expensive laptop that you paid for. I wonder if the response would be different if this didn't involve an eeeeevil binary-only driver. Yes, it should be open source (and thankfully that's happening), yes it's the driver that needs to be fixed, yes, open-source, non-proprietary drivers help prevent situations exactly like this, but anybody who does systems integration knows that ultimately it's not about which library or module is causing the problem, but whether the end product works. Broken is broken.

This has the beginnings of a fiasco in the making, since the frequency of confirming reports seem to be slowly increasing as the early adopters trickle in to give Gutsy Beta a try. Once Gutsy is released, the next portion of the bell curve will arrive to try things out, and soon we'll be reading endless articles about the latest reason Linux "isn't ready for the desktop". Maybe I'm wrong (I hope so) and ATI will come forth with a fix to fglrx that will eliminate the problem, but maybe someone needs to think things through a bit more. Ubuntu has a pretty big target painted on it's back at the moment.

(I'll note in passing that this isn't meant to be a rant against the devs because they aren't fixing *my* problem - I fixed the problem myself so I'm not deeply affected. Not everyone has the ability or the inclination to recompile a kernel, however, and my understanding of Ubuntu demographics suggests this describes the majority.)