googled ati and linux, got this.
I just got a ati 9600Xt from a friend, havent put it in my box yet, but my question is, how well is the support for ati on linux. Im not gonna be using linux for games, just the usual mp3s, videos, shells, coding, and deskmodding. will i be okay?

You should be good to go.

http://ubuntulinux.org/wiki/BinaryDriverHowto

(You didn't specify which verision of linux, so I guessed)

No problem, really. ATI's Linux support is actually quite good. Granted, nowhere near Nvidia's, but they are getting there - even gaming should not really pose a problem anymore.

I have yet to be able to get my ati 9600XT to work with any distro following any steps. Granted im not a *nix expert. There are many others I know who have had the same problem with the same card.

ATI driver support realy isnt that great (least on nix).

Compared to other vendor's complete non-support of Open Source, ATI does all right.

As for installation, perhaps there is a module you can insert via a much more simple apt-get command, rather than doing it the officially difficult way? I am an nVidia person myself, so I cannot say for sure (there is for nVidia).

Seeing as I don't play games on my Linux box, I haven't had any issues lately.

9.3 went in nicely using the radeon module, albeit no 3D accel out of the box, but then I have no need for it either.

ATi is getting their act together, slowly but firmly.

http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/ http://www.xfree86.org/current/RELNOTES4.html. Another place to look is in the forums of http://www.linuxquestions.org. Here is one search just in the hardware forum http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/se...rder=descending. You can run some games in linux. The ut and quake games run fine under linux. They run better in linux than windows lol. You could wine some game. I got starcraft and some others to run in linux using wine. You shoudnt have to mess with drivers with ati though. Xfee comes with ati drivers.

Took me 30 mins to get radeon drivers working with my 9800pro under Ubuntu, they have some great posts on there HowTo section on there forums. Followed a few of them and worked fine.

Yep, if you use Ubuntu it takes less than 30 minutes. Just apt-get the fglrx stuff and sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg.

I can't get mine to work Keeps freezing on hotplug subsystem. (I'm a newbie)

I got my 3D(ATI) working with Ubuntu Hoary using this HOW TO :

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=24557

i have the 9600XT installed, seems to be running okay in windows (damn windows trying auto find the drivers, GAHHHH PAIN IN THE ARSE!!!), but linux gives me xserv cannot start or something like that. then allows me to log in their term. what shall i do here peoples. running ubuntu 5.04 and a asus ati 9600XT, kind of having the same problem as luna monkey, it doesnt want to open my gdm. should i try a reinstall, or do you peoples have a better idea?

Well, for either of these video problems, it would be good to know what card (possibly what monitor, too) you have, and also if you could post your xorg.conf file, then we can look it over for problems.

no worries, i backed up the files on my flash drive and reinstalled, everythings good now, thank you all btw for your help.