AMD looks to court Linux gamers by making its GPU driver even better

(Image credit: Future)

AMD is hiring a new Lead Linux Kernel Developer to work on its AMDGPU driver for Linux.

The position will be based at AMD’s campus in Austin, Texas, and the lead developer will focus on designing and maintaining the graphics driver for Linux.

As per the job description, which was spotted by Phoronix, that will include:

  • Work as part of the global Software engineering team to design and maintain Linux open source graphics device driver (AMDGPU) and other software components
  • Resolve problem reports related to GPU device driver including troubleshooting, debugging, & defect correction
  • Specify, design, and implement software features in Linux open source driver stack for AMD GPU and APU product support

Of course, this role pertains to the heavyweight side of the GPU driver equation, and as AMD specifies, it covers supporting workstation and data center needs, but naturally the consumer side as well.

Meaning that with any luck, when the position is filled, those who play games on Linux will see the fruit of these efforts before too long.

Stable and able

AMD’s open source unified Linux graphics driver is already well-liked within the community, and we’ve seen a good deal of positive feedback as to its stability and compatibility – which as you may know, represents something of a contrast compared to the situation with Windows.

Meanwhile Nvidia’s Linux driver is a proprietary affair, and not ideal for everyone (such as those with older GPUs, for example), while open source alternatives like Nouveau are in a rougher state, and hampered by a lack of documentation as we’ve discussed in the past (although Nvidia does seem to be making efforts to remedy this).

All of this, naturally enough, is good news for those who do want to partake of a bit of gaming on their Linux PC – as was the recent release of a new version of Wine.

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).