Linux and desktop graphics [LWN.net]

Linux and desktop graphics

Posted Sep 1, 2005 4:05 UTC (Thu) by tjc (subscriber, #137)
In reply to: Linux and desktop graphics by eyal
Parent article: Linux and desktop graphics

Two or three years from now you may not be able to buy a video adapter that has any 2D API. What then?

Well, maybe.

There are a lot of people who never use 3D for anything, other than perhaps a screensaver.

I would like to see an updated 2D architecture to replace VGA released as a fully documented free hardware specification. The implementation cost would be nominal, but the result very useful to a large group of users.

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Linux and desktop graphics

Posted Sep 1, 2005 7:06 UTC (Thu) by anselm (subscriber, #2796) [Link]

> There are a lot of people who never use 3D for anything, other than
> perhaps a screensaver.

This is beside the point. Most of these people *will* be using 3D in
the guise of a system like Windows or MacOS that does everything in 3D,
even if it looks 2D.

Anselm

Linux and desktop graphics

Posted Sep 1, 2005 18:09 UTC (Thu) by tjc (subscriber, #137) [Link]

This is beside the point. Most of these people *will* be using 3D [snip]

Thanks for the prophetic utterance...

Linux and desktop graphics

Posted Sep 2, 2005 6:24 UTC (Fri) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link]

Actually, it's not very prophetic. I don't know about Windows, but on Mac OS X it is like that today. Apple calls it Quartz Extreme, and it makes every window an OpenGL object.

Linux and desktop graphics

Posted Sep 8, 2005 21:59 UTC (Thu) by barrygould (guest, #4774) [Link]

Windows Vista will allegedly work similarly.

Linux and desktop graphics

Posted Sep 1, 2005 14:34 UTC (Thu) by smitty_one_each (subscriber, #28989) [Link]

Is a cheap 2D card an impossiblity?
Considering what a challenge a stand-alone (non-WinModem) analog modem is, maybe.

Linux and desktop graphics

Posted Sep 1, 2005 18:14 UTC (Thu) by tjc (subscriber, #137) [Link]

Is a cheap 2D card an impossiblity?

I was thinking more along the lines of cheap 2D integrated in the mobo chipset, sort of like serial ports are today. This would be nice for servers, and for troubleshooting desktop systems.