What 2008 May Hold In Store for FOSS

eldavojohn writes to mention that LinuxPlanet has a brief discussion on what 2008 may hold for FOSS. The list includes thoughts on KDE 4, OOXML, DRM, and 3-D desktops. What boons for FOSS are you looking forward to in 2008?

Comments

Re:3d desktops?

[mhall119]

Most Linux 3D desktops actually relieve your CPU of some work. In a non-accelerated desktop your CPU is responsible for all of X's calculations. Composited window managers shift some of that burden to your GPU, which is better at that kind of thing anyway. I see no performance penalty from running Compiz on my box, and the window manager is actually _more_ responsive than metacity, especially during CPU intensive processes. And I only have a GeForce3, the bare minimum according to Compiz's specs (though I've also run it on a GeForce2, there were some issues with drop-shadows).

Re:Proves my point

[pionzypher]

You probably got modded because it was a crazy ass sounding rant against trying to predict tech trends by using religion. You then followed up with a bunch of offtopic tripe.

Tech website speculating about the future of FOSS in the next year.... yeah... it happens. That's great that no one will remember who predicted what. That's not the point of the exercise. The point is to discuss it NOW for the heck of it. It most likely has nothing to do with hating religion.

OLPC vs clothes

[Error27]

From the article: "And it is true that food and clothing may seem like more immediate priorities in many regions."

Please do not send any more clothes. You've already killed off the local textile industry and put all the cotton farmers out of work with your free clothes. Who can compete with free crap? Please stop.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1076411.stm

I no longer donate clothes for exactly this reason.

Re:More linux-based home entertainment devices

[PitaBred]

No, they aren't. They're obligated to only provide a way to get the source, not necessarily make it downloadable:

3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
 
    a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
    source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
    1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
 
    b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
    years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
    cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
    machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
    distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
    customarily used for software interchange;

See here for the full text. They could just send a letter with the TV saying "Write us for the source and we'll send you a CD" and they'd be fine.

Re:Amarok?

[pionzypher]

Projectm whitescreens under Amarok as well. I'm sure it's some problem with the libs. At least it compiles now though, the first couple of attempts a year or two ago gave up the ghost due to (from what I could gather on forums) a compiler bug. It's all good though, I'm sure it'll end up in the repositories.

Re:More Linux games! :(

[Yosho]

Why do they keep selling themselves to DirectX instead of OpenGL? GRRRR!

Because DirectX and OpenGL are not equivalents. OpenGL is only an API for drawing graphics; with DirectX you can not only do graphics, but you can also handle sound, input, networking, and more. The only open source equivalent to DirectX that I'm aware of is SDL, which is perfectly usable, but honestly it's not nearly as powerful as DirectX is. If you want just as much power, you'll have to go hunting through half a dozen common different alternatives for every aspect of your game, and none of them will work on every Linux system out there.

Re:opengl console

[Bandman]

If you haven't seen it (and I assume you have, but just in case) check out Antitrust. An overly enjoyable movie full of cheese with some pretty nice looking girls.

There was a point where the head security guard was like "dust for prints on the shift and control keys; keys geeks use, but other people don't". I remember thinking "that's a pretty good idea".

Re:Clueless

[FreeGamer]

Yup, that ridiculous sentence reflects the overall quality of this artcile. It's complete garbage. Take a few announcements, summarize as predictions, then somehow get posted on /. We already know KDE4 will be here in January, ATI announced specs for it's video drivers months ago, Ubuntu + Fedora + others already have Compiz as the default, OOXML is much publicized, and without further research I'm fairly certain the other 2 mentions issues (DRM + End Software Patent Coalition) are nothing new. And finally make some pathetic assertion that Java is trying to catch .NET and not the other way around.

I know there's plenty of crap on the net but it seems that the crap filters are breaking down because I am finding myself directed to rubbish not-worth-reading articles on a far more regular basis through sites like /. and fsdaily than a few years ago.

My 2008 prediction - /. standards get even worse.