It occurs to me that what would solve this problem (assuming the IP rights apply to the API rather than actual board chips) is a new standard that could technologically rival OpenGL and D3D. How much work would it take to get something like SDL up to the level of OpenGL/DirectX? Or create a totally new API? There's tons of OSS talent out there (as evidenced by the nifty OS and browser I'm using to post this) if some of it could be directed to a project like this it could undermine MS's hold on graphics technology. Release it free and unrestricted (not GPLed, because if we want it to become a standard we want people making proprietary programs to be able to use it) and it could become the next de facto graphics standard.
I guess this is one of the problems with the OSS world; because everyone hacks what they feel like hacking, talent doesn't get distributed to where its needed most. That's all well and good most of the time, but people are out there making 3 or 4 versions of the same program while something like this could effect the viability of OSS altogether.
On a side note, this should serve as a warning. Linux and OSS depends on a lot of proprietary stuff. Now its offered for free, and open source in some cases, but companies could change that, and then where would we be?
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It occurs to me that what would solve this problem (assuming the IP rights apply to the API rather than actual board chips) is a new standard that could technologically rival OpenGL and D3D. How much work would it take to get something like SDL up to the level of OpenGL/DirectX? Or create a totally new API? There's tons of OSS talent out there (as evidenced by the nifty OS and browser I'm using to post this) if some of it could be directed to a project like this it could undermine MS's hold on graphics technology. Release it free and unrestricted (not GPLed, because if we want it to become a standard we want people making proprietary programs to be able to use it) and it could become the next de facto graphics standard. I guess this is one of the problems with the OSS world; because everyone hacks what they feel like hacking, talent doesn't get distributed to where its needed most. That's all well and good most of the time, but people are out there making 3 or 4 versions of the same program while something like this could effect the viability of OSS altogether. On a side note, this should serve as a warning. Linux and OSS depends on a lot of proprietary stuff. Now its offered for free, and open source in some cases, but companies could change that, and then where would we be?