[Wlug] linux eye candy / video card recommendation sought

[John Stoffel]

Andrew> Since my linux machine has 512 MB RAM but only on-board video,
Andrew> I found a used $20 Radeon 7500 on ebay and will try Beryl
Andrew> out. [Side note: I bought an "afordable performance pc" for
Andrew> linux from madtux.com for about $200, and am generally
Andrew> satisified but for the power supply which sounds like a
Andrew> snowblower. Very minimalist interior. Space for 6 HDD's, for
Andrew> example.]

This is a neat and interesting site, though I think Dell's clearance
store to also be full of good deals as well.  I wonder why you didn't
get more RAM on that box as well, since 1Gb would make a big
improvement here I'm sure.  

But the Knoppix PC is tempting for my kid at home, though I think I
can find a used Dell/Random PC which will do fine.  He just wants to
find and print pictures of whales at this point.  *grin*

Andrew> My question: In case the Radeon 7500 isn't up to the task, or
Andrew> for future expansion, are there any particular low-cost video
Andrew> cards that anyone would recommend which are very well
Andrew> supported under linux ?  By "very well supported", I mean that
Andrew> it should work "out of the box" with all of the major distros,
Andrew> at least if this is possible.

I still like my Matrox G450, it's got great 2-d performance, and a
nice crisp display.  I'm right now at work using a Dell P4 box with
i865 graphics on a Samsuny SyncMaster 204B LCD and it's just fine too.

I could care less about 3-d at this point.  The bigger issue I have is
that dual PIII Xeon 550mhz CPUs on my home machine just don't cut it
as well for photo editing and such.  Poor me.  :]

John