Slashdot Mirror
The State of Linux Graphics
jonsmirl writes "I've written a lengthy article covering what I learned during the last two years building the Xegl display server. Topics include the current X server, framebuffer, Xgl, graphics drivers, multiuser support, using the GPU, and a new display server design. Hopefully it will help you fill in the pieces and build an overall picture of the graphics landscape."
I enjoyed the article and thought it was layed out well. THe only thing I didn't like was his opinion on the eye candy under the section "Desktop Alternatives". He states 3D is faster than 2D. This just isn't true at all. Mathematically, if you are doing 2D mappings, all you computations are two coordinates to multiply. In 3D, you have three to multiply. He says using 3D will give faster results than 2D for doing filters and mappings, but all those calculations can be done in 2D. I think he's implying 3D means hardware and 2D means software, which I didn't like. It's like the X and many GUI developers agree, 3D isn't of very good use. No one has tried to lay their papers out on a desk in 3D to help organize things. If something shouldn't be seen, you put it behind something else. Even simple things like transparency haven't become popular. Screen scaling is a 2D algorithm. There's no 3D about it, unless your rendering a 2D image into 3D then scaling it, but if you were doing that, you might as well just use the 2D image and scale that instead.