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IceStorm,
Windows 2000 is being sold to end users now through OEM channels with MS's blessing, and with (conditional) support. Dell is one such company.
With nearly 2 months between RTM and the public launch, there is also the possibility that the version being loaded by OEM's on the 17th of Feb will be more recent than the one on the shelves. NT has always been like that, service pack 1 arrives very quickly.
Matrox has a following amongst NT users, primarly because of their excellent 2D quality. But judging from the posts here, a lot of NT users feel that Matrox has neglected them in recent years (me included), and they are very anxious to see what will happen with Windows 2000. I appreciate some of the beta testers posting comments on the drivers - but it is not really the same as seeing them generally available for a lot of people to test.
Matrox's biggest competitor is going to have to be nVidia, they really look set to dominate the video card industry into the next decade. nVidia isn't publically releasing W2k reference drivers - but it is sending the source to to manufactures and allowing them to release drivers - company's like asus and leadtek have done so. These drivers show potential, but they are by no means runningly perfectly on all systems. Matrox doesn't have the benefit of a dozen company's developers pouring over their source code, so I should think they would want to have a fairly broad base of testers.
Realistically, how many people think Matrox has a shot at releasing drivers with 3D as fast and as stable as nVidia's come RTM? I hope they do, but given the NT OpenGL situation it is a big ask, and who would take their word for it?
Paul.
Windows 2000 is being sold to end users now through OEM channels with MS's blessing, and with (conditional) support. Dell is one such company.
With nearly 2 months between RTM and the public launch, there is also the possibility that the version being loaded by OEM's on the 17th of Feb will be more recent than the one on the shelves. NT has always been like that, service pack 1 arrives very quickly.
Matrox has a following amongst NT users, primarly because of their excellent 2D quality. But judging from the posts here, a lot of NT users feel that Matrox has neglected them in recent years (me included), and they are very anxious to see what will happen with Windows 2000. I appreciate some of the beta testers posting comments on the drivers - but it is not really the same as seeing them generally available for a lot of people to test.
Matrox's biggest competitor is going to have to be nVidia, they really look set to dominate the video card industry into the next decade. nVidia isn't publically releasing W2k reference drivers - but it is sending the source to to manufactures and allowing them to release drivers - company's like asus and leadtek have done so. These drivers show potential, but they are by no means runningly perfectly on all systems. Matrox doesn't have the benefit of a dozen company's developers pouring over their source code, so I should think they would want to have a fairly broad base of testers.
Realistically, how many people think Matrox has a shot at releasing drivers with 3D as fast and as stable as nVidia's come RTM? I hope they do, but given the NT OpenGL situation it is a big ask, and who would take their word for it?
Paul.
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