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Google Won't Enable Chrome Video Acceleration Because of Linux GPU Bugs

Posted by Soulskill on from the off-the-poorly-rendered-table dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Citing 'code we consider to be permanently "experimental" or "beta,"' Google Chrome engineers have no plans on enabling video acceleration in the Chrome/Chromium web browser. Code has been written but is permanently disabled by default because 'supporting GPU features on Linux is a nightmare' due to the reported sub-par quality of Linux GPU drivers and many different Linux distributions. Even coming up with a Linux GPU video acceleration white-list has been shot down over fear of the Linux video acceleration code causing stability issues and problems for Chrome developers. What have been your recent experiences with Linux GPU drivers?"

5 of 295 comments (clear)

  1. Permenant Beta by sunderland56 · · Score: 3, Informative

    You mean like Google Maps??

  2. Mine is working just fine. by abednegoyulo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Using intel i3 graphics with default driver that comes with RHEL6/CentOS6. I startup chromium with --ignore-gpu-blacklist. It has been more than a year now and so far so good.

  3. Bullshit! by martyn1807 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Simply enable it for NVIDIA users by default. It works the same across every distribution, and in fact, every OS. Google are just as cowardly as Adobe were.

    For those who want faster flash and faster Chrome, try this:

    * Go to chrome://flags

    * Override software rendering list -> Enable

    Welcome to a faster Flash and faster Chrome :)

  4. Linux drivers are fine by melting_clock · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've been using Linux as my primary OS for 10 years. My desktop PC does dual boot into windows for a few games but spends 95% of the time in Linux. I've done a bit of gaming and other graphics intensive applications under Linux without any problems. As a part time gaming machine, there is a mid range NVIDIA card hiding inside and I've always used the proprietary NVIDIA drivers which are as good as those on windows. There was a time when installing those drivers was a bit of a pain, due to other developers trying to to force their extremist political views on users, but it is a very simple process now.

    Some drivers might have problems but there is no reason they couldn't take the same approach as Firefox developers: provide a user controlled, easily accessible, option to enable hardware acceleration... Maybe that last point shows why I don't care what Google does with Chrome on Linux or any other platform... Firefox works for me on Linux, Windows and Android.

  5. Re:Like the good ole days by operagost · · Score: 5, Informative

    3dfx and Matrox. Millennium + Voodoo, bitches!

    --

    Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.