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Xorg and Desktop Eyecandy
BonoLeBonobo writes "Xorg is going to include a new acceleration architecture which will help desktops to have better eye-candy effects thanks to a better XRender, thus composite, acceleration. Developped by Zack Rusin, a KDE and Qt developper, this new feature should be present in Xorg in September. Porting the existing drivers to this new acceleration architecture should be easy."
My reaction to this was "Huh?" so I went and looked it up. Apparently, Burma Shave was the company that developed the idea of stretching a message across several signs along the road. The idea was that people would tune in to the advertisement because they wanted to know what the punch line of the slogan would be. Apparently the scheme worked quite well, and we now see the concept in popular media such as Road Runner cartoons and the movie Rat Race. (You, Should, Have, Bought, A, Squirrel!) ;-)
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
New antislashdotting strategy: flirt with disaster with a Slashdot front-page "desktop eyecandy" story at 10:30AM EST (global coffeebreak). Dodge the bullet with an all-text target page.
Really, do we trust people to have delicious eyecandy, when all they show us in their rendering announcement is text? They probably like to chew ballpoint pens, too.
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make install -not war
Maybe because Xorg still implements the X specification/protocol, version 11, Release 6? Adding eyecandy does not add to or change this at all...
Your sig is mine
that, as X developers said, this is only a temporary solution, so that while Xgl matures we will have hardware alpha compositing in hardware. The final solution will be pushing the entire hardware abstaction layer (OpenGL) under the Xserver, in order to take advantage of the 3D hardware on the desktop too.
Wondering why i am doing so strange posts? I am trying to get a "+5,Flamebait" or "-1,Insightful" rating.
If you bothered to read the links, you'd know that 6.9 (the (last?) monolithic release) and 7.0 (the modular release) will occur at the same time.
Actually X.org uses very little memory: it was designed to run in 16MB (or was it 8MB ?).
The memory you see being taken up by the X server can be attributed to several things: a mmaped framebuffer (if you have a 256MB videocard, the reported memory usage of X will include that), and server side shared pixmaps. It is really the applications' fault if this gets out of control.
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The world is divided in two categories:
those with a loaded gun and those who dig. You dig.
They'll only make it X12 if and when they break that compatibility, and they won't do that without a good reason.
There's no requirement that an X12 server be completely incompatible with an X11 server. i.e. The X12 could easily accept commands from an X11 stream. While the X11 server would not be able to understand X12, such issues would be slow in cropping up, and X12 should easily be able to replace X11 long before that happens.
The extension architecture works fine AFAICS, is there an actual problem you have with it?
I can't speak for the parent poster, but my primary issue with current X-Windows is not so much the protocol (which could use a good overhaul anyway), and more the current design of X-Servers. Instead of forcing the OS to do its job, current X-Server designs schlep up video card, mouse, joystick, and other hardware control. The reasons for this design aren't entirely clear, but it is obvious that this is a source of many X-Windows issues. Moving these drivers to the OS level would improve reliability and configurability all around.
Don't take my word for it, however. Mr. Packard has a very good writeup on the issue.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Because eyecandy affects a larger number of people, and most hackers probably don't have dual monitors available on which to test. But it seems that you do, so get to work!
X is a protocol, not a piece of software, so there is no such thing as a "distribution of X". XFree86 and X.org are both servers that implement the X protocol (version 11), but they are far from the only ones. There have been dozens of different implementations of the X protocol since it was created 20 years ago. Some of them run in a few hundred kbytes. Furthermore, the X server and the X client libraries are already pretty much independent. Traditionally, with the MIT X distribution, all you needed to run the server was the X server binary (a statically linked executable), the "fixed" font, and a bunch of configuration files. I believe under Debian, you can install one without the other if you like.
if you read the mailing list (I do) you would see that a one part of this is that it is architecture is s simpler. simpler drivers == more stable drivers
development is happening... I assure you
PHP is the solution of choice for relaying mysql errors to web users.
http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/tips#oth_me mcache
// Specify the amount of memory cache: // -1 = determine dynamically (default), 0 = none, n = memory capacity in kilobytest y", 4096);
// Disable memory cache:
This MAY help
Specify the memory cache usage
Normally, Firefox determines the memory cache usage dynamically based on the amount of available memory. To specify a specific amount of memory cache, add the following code to your user.js file:
user_pref("browser.cache.memory.capaci
To disable the memory cache completely, add the following code:
user_pref("browser.cache.memory.enable", false);
The RenderAccel option to the nVidia driver is experimental, not RENDER itself. GTK+ has been using Render directly for several years now.
Keith makes lots of good points. He also notes that a lot of work is already being done toward fixing some of these issues, or at least cleaning them up some. Of course, you have to balance these things; he's discussing what would be ideal, when in reality the Xorg folks would like to keep some reasonable release schedule, which means not overhauling the whole thing at once. The archetecture has been moving toward kernel drivers and a unified gl-based renderer for some time, and that's good.
However, it doesn't at all add up to a change away from X11R6. Nothing Keith proposes requires a protocol change...just a reworking of Xorg's implementation of X11R6. It looks like from the second part of your post that you see that, but I'd like to make doubly-clear....the protocol is fine. And as for the servers, they may be a bit ugly, but they work for now, and they'll get there.
Given a choice between free speech and free beer, most people will take the beer.
http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/tips#oth_me mcache [mozilla.org]
// Specify the amount of memory cache: // -1 = determine dynamically (default), 0 = none, n = memory capacity in kilobytest y", 4096);
// Disable memory cache:
This MAY help
Specify the memory cache usage
Normally, Firefox determines the memory cache usage dynamically based on the amount of available memory. To specify a specific amount of memory cache, add the following code to your user.js file:
user_pref("browser.cache.memory.capaci
To disable the memory cache completely, add the following code:
user_pref("browser.cache.memory.enable", false);
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The GPL isn't the only definition of Freedom or Free.
Actually I see it every day in my shower, and every few months when I go to buy more. It's cheap and it works.
It's there, but it's basic shaving cream. It's not a gel, and it doesn't require a "system" to use. There's no brush, so you can't even call it retro. But I don't think the can has changed since the fifties.
Oh, its marketing has definitely been far surpassed since then. But boy, how often will you see not just a catchy jingle but a whole style last a half-century?
Then, in KDE, I went to Control Center -> Appearance & Themes -> Fonts -> Use antialising: true, then Configure -> Use sub-pixel hinting: as appropriate and Hinting style: medium. Voila! Beautiful subpixel antialiased fonts on my Linux and FreeBSD, each with different LCD monitor models.
I'm not even sure if I actually needed to edit local.conf, but it's been ages since I set it up and I don't remember the exact reasons for it.
In other words, it sounds like you have problems with the way your desktop of choice is configured for AA fonts. Understand that other desktops handle the job quite gracefully and with good results.
I am a
They've been bought by American Safety Razor, but the brand is still around (almost entirely because of these ads). They even ran some of the old-style road signs in North Carolina about 5-6 years ago.
You can buy their current products at (for instance):
http://www.diamondbeauty.com/brandnames/Burma-Sha
http://store.darisimall.com/798819.html
Amusing that the brand is now attached to brush shave-cream, since Burma Shave was one of the original brushless creams and often made fun of the brush ("Shaving Brushes/You'll soon see 'em/on a shelf/in some museum/Burma Shave")
Most of the ads would have 4-5 signs, then the "Burma Shave" tag sign at the end; e.g. "Dinah doesn't/Treat him right/but if he shaved/Dinah might/Burma Shave".
But there was one series that omitted the Tag, showing how ubiquitous these signs once were:
If you don't know
who we are
you haven't travelled
very far.
The original signs ran from the 1920s-1960s.
And in the mid-80s someone put up a bunch of sets that said:
Farewell O verse
Along the road
How sad to see
You're out of mode.
but as I said, the late 1990s saw the return of some Burma-Shave signs.
rage, rage against the dying of the light
Categorically: no. Fonts on your system suck. On my system, they look as good as they do on the nearby PCs and Macs. Whether because of
your situation is not universal. I'm not trying to be a jerk about it, but I can't stand people claiming that "Linux can't do $bar" when I personally use it to do $bar every day. Certain may have problems with $bar on their setup, but that doesn't mean that no one else can manage it.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Running happily on an ATI Radeon 9250 with OSS X.org 6.8.2 drivers including 3D acceleration.
Sure the card may not get the framerate of an XBox with an X800, but it's still way better than the SPF (seconds per frame) of a Nvidia card with OSS software.
Q3A and UT2004 run perfectly. I haven't tried Doom 3 or UT 2005 yet though.
(This is Linux though, but I assume X.org works the same on FreeBSD)