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Mesa 10.5 Updates Open-Source Graphics Drivers
An anonymous reader writes Mesa 10.5 has been released to update the open-source Linux graphics driver stack. This quarterly update to Mesa has initial support for Intel's next-generation Skylake graphics, Qualcomm Adreno A4xx support, EGL support on the BeOS-inspired Haiku, the new NIR intermediate representation, and other changes. While new GL4 extensions were implemented, the Intel/Radeon/Nouveau drivers only have enough support right now to expose OpenGL 3.3, but GL4.2 is expected out of the open-source drivers by the end of the year.
The summary is almost as long as the article, which is only slightly longer than the original release notes.
> Windows is only slightly ahead of Linux. Mac OS X is the closest, but even it never had the panache that BeOS had. BeOS was one of a kind. It was The Best.
You know, when I leave home to work, I think how fortunate I am to be forced to use Windows there; I don't have to endure Linux like I do at home. Yep. Lucky me.
I'll have to believe you that BeOS is great, because when I wanted to test it, it had some idiot limitations which made it a big turn off. Not copulating at all.
And that is what happens to most big things which would rather die than go GPL and at least be useful to many in a kind of afterlife.
Where is BeOS now? The Amiga?
Sorry, but Linux is better in a very important dimension: I have access to it.
I'm using Firefox on an old computer right now -- mainly because the Nouveau guys are simply great and made it work.
This machine works perfectly with Firefox, but Chromium won't run (it lacks the special vector instruction SSE2).
Nor Flash, probably for the same reason. HTML5 works, webm better yet, but it can play 1280x720 video nicely with vlc or mplayer. Not bad for a 10+ year old PC.
BeOS could be great, but Gasse was right in that powerful interests prevented it from being a success; I believe he could have joined efforts with Linux back then to move things on; more or less like Steam is doing. Alas, I wish them all the success they can handle.
I'm using Firefox on an old computer right now -- mainly because the Nouveau guys are simply great and made it work.
What specs?
Systemd required yet?
I read that systemd now subsumes the graphics driver, which will be used to render text as graphics into system logs. Also, there's a hard dependency between Gnome and systemd's graphics drivers.
AMD Sempron 2300+ (nearly 1.6 GHz), PAE-capable (though not in use), i686 but no SSE2
processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 6
model : 8
model name : AMD Sempron(TM) 2300+
stepping : 1
cpu MHz : 1583.294
cache size : 256 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 1
core id : 0
cpu cores : 1
apicid : 0
initial apicid : 0
fdiv_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse syscall mp mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow vmmcall
bugs : fxsave_leak
bogomips : 3166.58
clflush size : 32
cache_alignment : 32
address sizes : 34 bits physical, 32 bits virtual
power management: ts
This processor has a Passmark result of 318, ranked 1806 -- compare to a Pentium 4 2.8GHz (328, 1791).
1.5 GB RAM (I guess originally was 512MB, I seem to recall having increased it by 1 GB)
Geforce4 MX440
This is where I thank the Nouveau guys. It runs ok with the glamor option -- plays 1280x720 at 24-bit color depth (xv mplayer driver).
Choosing the fbdev driver, color depth becomes 16-bit, xv acceleration becomes unavailable, but html5player works better than at the above setting.
I'm trying to solve this conundrum. In the meantime, there's an extension "Video WithOut Flash" which allows selecting the webm format which plays ok at medium video sizes. Or download HD and play the content with mplayer in its full glory. Didn't test with 1920x1080 yet, though I doubt it will work.
AC97 audio
40GB HD (but a 7200RPM one)
1280x1024 monitor
I'm using it with Xfce 4.12.
Since there is enough RAM, KDE might do, too, but I'm testing the newly released Xfce.
While Cinnamon was unusable (too slow), Mate feels faster than both KDE and Xfce. Unfortunately, I don't know it well enough to apply my standard tweaks: shade with mouse wheel on titlebar, do not raise window when clicked inside -- not to mention the anachronistic "Applications Places Desktop", which I'd rather have as icons, not as text.
As for applications, Firefox works nicely, Libreoffice runs well (though I didn't try 1 million lines spreadsheets), video players work at a good resolution (720p), music is ok (get Radio Player, it is AWESOME), I can post as an AC over here and annoy some people... well, it doesn't get much better that this. :-)
when they get around to fully supporting Nvidia Optimus systems.
If your motherboard supports 200MHz FSB instead of 166 (which might be a big if) then the CPU should run at 1.9GHz, which should not be terribly hard at all. That sempron was a rather quite underclocked Athlon XP, probably so they call sell it a tiny bit cheaper.
I had flash player 11.2 running on a Pentium III. Alright, I've researched the issue and these dumb nuts dropped SSE from one 11.2.x.x release to another!
pitiful html5 performance matches what I've seen on another computer (VIA C7 at 1GHz, Windows 7). HTML5 video really has a hardware decoder in mind (cell phone hardware, recent GPU with recent and/or proprietary driver) or needs even more CPU brute force that flash did.
smtube player may be useful, it's a front-end to browse for youtube videos and then launch them in a video player (or to download them). I did not try firefox extensions much yet.
Where is BeOS now?
Check this out:
http://haiku-os.org/
Progress is very slow, but it's still going. Don't bother with the Alpha 4 download, try one of the nightly snapshots instead.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
well done mentioning an os mentioned in the blurb!
anyhow, could you tell if it has working 3d hardware support? nvidia, amd? few year old cards? there was some hubbub about it few years ago but never catched if they had managed to do it or not.
I ran BeOS dano leaked beta for few years on an irc/mp3 box. it was great and unlike ubuntu if the soundsystem crashed you didn't need a reboot. you didn't need a reboot for anything pretty much and did it's thing on a 300mhz or something box pretty well.
not that it matters now for me too much since I'm stuck with windows anyways, but haiku might be nice for a netbook.. if the wifi works.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.