Good pro graphics card to invest in that is Libre-friendly?
I need to upgrade my graphics card for video/audio/graphics and some 3D work (intro/outro for videos). I am not sure if there is anything out there that is Libre friendly. I think Nvidea has nouveau drivers, which may or may not be good enough for the task. I was going to get an AMD pro graphics card with Linux drivers, but thought I would ask here just in case something Trisquel-friendly might exist. I am not sure if pro (not casual, not hobbyist) video is even possible under Trisquel. Again, I thought I would ask. If so, let me know. I want it to be an investment.
Good question. What is 'the best' graphics card option that is available right now, which is fully compatible with libre drivers?
I believe that would be a gtx770. Any kepler series nvidia gpu will actually work just fine and deliver decent performance.
Uhh, like, you got anything pro level with about eight gigs of RAM? Some backstory. Right now, I dual boot with Windows out of necessity. I was trained in Adobe CC (Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, etc.), but now use DaVinci Resolve, Blender, and Mixbus/Ardour. Cinelerra is looking right promising as a video editor and Blender needs more power, but the latter also does Non Linear Video Editing (NLE). Tranitioning to Linux is not that far (I hope). I may need to dual boot with Linux and Linux Libre, which would be great. And then run something Stallman approved at some point. But I need something powerful, besides just upgrading the CPU and RAM. Eight gigs +.
I have gtx770 with 4gb of GDDR5 and it's runs blobless. If you want something more modern, you must to run full of non-free firmwares. And be carefull, maybe some functions/extensions for your software will be incompatible. For example, if you run Android Studio's emulator with hardware acceleration graphics, it will be incompatible with nouveau, but it runs fine with software emulation. For games, any game will run with nouveau and gtx770 (except Serious Sam). Also pre Skylake generations of Intel processors, will run fine, if you want Intel GPU, you should get some pre-skylake CPU with Intel Iris graphics, but probably you won't get 8gb of GDDR5.
The next frontier of the free software. I am old enough to have seen the struggle and battle of GNU-Linux with proprietary hardware, the days when only windows had the drivers, the terrible "winmodem" and so on. Nowadays GNU-Linux non-free runs almost everything. The Free GNU-Linux is like the non-free version some years ago.
Coming back to the topic what about amd cards?
As far as I know, AMD is awful. No 3D acceleration in particular.
AMD has made some big strides with Linux open drivers and are en par with Nvidea in some realms, like using Blender. This is sort of a breakthrough year for them. They could always be better. However, Libre drivers are a different issue. There is nothing out there like Nouveau for AMD at this time, unfortunately. I need to invest in a good graphics card for video/graphics and some motion graphics. I will not touch Intel due to their ongoing human rights violations, so it is just AMD and Nvidea as a choice for now. Android development and gaming is not a priority. I am not buying anything now now now, I have to take my time because this is a big purchase decision. A business investment.
I have a GTX 1050 on my desktop machine (which I have yet to convert to Trisquel). Will that work with nouveau?
@Time4Tea Why does no one answer you? Unless you use your desktop to get timely tasks completed, and nothing super critical is on it, I say give Trisquel a try. Mind you, it seems like the real solution to Libre dilemmas is to simply buy another computer. One machine to get work done, another to explore Libre possibilities. Someone once gave me his desktop with an Nvidea gaming card (he upgraded and bought a nice new beast) and Trisquel worked nicely on the used one. Of course, the machine only lasted a couple of years. Great while I had it though. It is sad that proprietary crap is used for work, but hopefully this will be less so in the future, one GPL program at a time. I write to AMD and beg (come to think about it, I should write another letter to Dr. Lisa Su of AMD and beg s'more. Hardware is sort of another frontier to engage in, to boldly go where no GNU has gone before! ENGAGE!