Problems in getting new drivers into Linux distributions

[Omer Zak]

The article "The Challenge In Delivering Open-Source GPU
Drivers" (http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ODk3MA)
discusses the obstacles facing Intel and AMD in getting up to date Linux
support for new graphic cards into Linux distributions.

Seems that there are all kinds of interlocking interdependencies - both
kernel, X-Window and Mesa (OpenGL implementation) need to be updated to
support such drivers.  And this is a problem for distributions which
periodically release a version (Arch and Gentoo are exceptions).

I do not understand one thing.
Debian has backports (http://backports.debian.org/).  Through backports,
it is possible to get the appropriate updated versions into a
installation based upon a particular release.

Don't other distributions have backports, too?

--- Omer


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