ATI And Current Linux distributions

[nybor]

OR if they don't want to support their older cards, then open the full specs and even aid the Opensource development of the drivers so the community can maintain it.. they are more than willing to do so.

I think that's exactly what they've done. ATI has released a lot of documentation, and because of that the open source driver is coming along in leaps and bounds.

Full opengl 1.5, including VBO support, is arriving with mesa 7.6. I tested Penumbra using the xorg crack pushers ppa on ubuntu and with a recent build of mesa 7.6 I was able to get past the black screen after intro issue (iMac core duo, x1600), although the graphics still had some issues (I've got my fingers crossed that they'll be worked out before release).