Paul Dokas <dokas@cs.umn.edu> writes:

> Really, everyone that I've asked here at work has told me that card
> (at least in laptops) is only supported by XFree86 under Linux.
> At least for *accelerated* 2D.  Unaccelerated 2D may or may not
> work.

The laptop version could be different, I suppose. I don't have
personal experience with that arrangement. On the desktop it works,
and XFree86 reports the usual compliment of XAA 2D accelerations.

(--) PCI:*(1:5:0) NVidia GeForce4 MX 440 rev 163, Mem @ 0xe6000000/24,
0xe8000000/27, 0xe7800000/19, BIOS @ 0xe77e0000/17
...
(II) NV: driver for NVIDIA chipsets: RIVA 128, RIVA TNT,
        RIVA TNT2/TNT2 Pro, RIVA TNT2 Ultra, Vanta, Riva TNT2 M64,
        Aladdin TNT2, GeForce 256, GeForce DDR, Quadro, GeForce2 MX/MX 400,
        GeForce2 MX 100/200, GeForce2 Go, Quadro2 MXR, GeForce2 GTS/Pro,
        GeForce2 Ti, GeForce2 Ultra, Quadro2 Pro, GeForce4 MX 460,
        GeForce4 MX 440, GeForce4 MX 420, GeForce4 440 Go, GeForce4 420 Go,
        GeForce4 420 Go M32, Quadro4 500XGL, GeForce4 440 Go M64,
        Quadro4 200/400NVS, Quadro4 550XGL, Quadro4 GoGL,
        GeForce2 Integrated, GeForce3, GeForce3 Ti 200, GeForce3 Ti 500,
        Quadro DCC, GeForce4 Ti 4600, GeForce4 Ti 4400, GeForce4 Ti 4200,
        Quadro4 900 XGL, Quadro4 750 XGL, Quadro4 700 XGL
..
(--) Chipset GeForce4 MX 440 found
..
(II) NV(0): Using XFree86 Acceleration Architecture (XAA)
        Screen to screen bit blits
        Solid filled rectangles
        8x8 mono pattern filled rectangles
        Indirect CPU to Screen color expansion
        Solid Lines
        Offscreen Pixmaps
        Setting up tile and stipple cache:
                32 128x128 slots
                32 256x256 slots
                16 512x512 slots

> It costs a little more than a comparable Dell, it's a little lighter
> and it does not use an NVidia chipset.  They only questions that I've
> got are about the physical quality of the machine, and how well it runs
> NetBSD.  Anyone have one?

Sonys were popular laptops around MIT a few years ago, and they've
almost all bit the dust mechanically. The Dells that many people got
as replacements seem to have held up better, though I hear occasional
disparaging remarks about their service..

        - Nathan