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 just want an ATI driver that will work in full screen mode with my Dell Laptop.
Use Windows. Better, faster, less exploits than the vanilla-kernel.
A good place to start looking for state of the art is with the people who invented the GUI : right here.
I think people are going overboard with all this worrying about hardware acceleration and all these other complex additions to the Linux X server. Even before Render and the compositing extensions, X11 was already the window system of choice for high-end graphics workstations. With the recent extensions and RandR, the Linux X server is actually technologically far ahead of Windows and Macintosh again. Please, guys, leave "good enough" alone.
At this point, what Linux and X11 need most is better high-level support: an improved client-side Xlib, improved toolkits, innovative window managers, fixing the network transparency features that Gnome and KDE have broken, standardizing inter-toolkit and inter-client communications again, etc.
Maybe after that, it's worth revisiting two minor points: protocol compression and server-side stored vector graphics.
Although the Linux zeolots will jump on me for this, your post is exactly correct. This is another case of Linux trying to do what Apple OS X had already done.
If this guy was really interested in Linux desktop graphics, he would have at least made a passing mention of the Open Graphics Project ( http://opengraphics.org/ ).
You mean wasting ressources on eye candy?
Linux is not Windows