Xorg 7.1 is in FC6, where it belongs [LWN.net]

Xorg 7.1 is in FC6, where it belongs

Posted Aug 15, 2006 15:15 UTC (Tue) by rriggs (guest, #11598)
Parent article: X.org, distributors, and proprietary modules

Xorg 7.1, with it's ABI changes, has no business going into Fedora Core 5.

FC5, at this point in its lifecycle, is considered by many to be stable. Xorg 7.0 was the most recent version when FC5 started out. Xorg 7.1 does belong in FC6, which is exactly where it will be introduced.

The folks managing Fedora Core are doing a fine job IMO. There is a balancing act to do, and preventing breakage in an existing distribution has to be a primary consideration.

I am a Fedora Core user and I expect breakage when new FC versions are rolled out. I had no problem when 4KSTACKS broke the NVidia drivers I rely on because that happened in a new FC version. But I would have been severely disappointed if they chose to roll out a 4KSTACKS kernel to a stable FC version before the bugs had been ironed out. I am a long-time Red Hat customer and Fedora Core user, but that sort of instability would have me running somewhere else fast.

I can agree that binary drivers do cause issues that a purely open-source solution would not have to face. And I would very much prefer that ATI and NVidia open source their drivers. But to imply that distributors and their users are being held hostage by these drivers is a little over the top. It's merely one consideration in the decision process regarding what packages to include in upgrades.

Put another way: I made the decision to purchase NVidia hardware (again, as recently as last week) because, in the end, it is in my best interest to have excellent 3D hardware support at the expense that proprietary drivers exact. So, if people want to blame someone for this, they can blame me and others like me who make that choice.

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Xorg 7.1 is in FC6, where it belongs

Posted Aug 15, 2006 15:47 UTC (Tue) by smulcahy (guest, #2758) [Link] (4 responses)

How else can we show off the goodness of xscreensaver? :)

Xorg 7.1 is in FC6, where it belongs

Posted Aug 16, 2006 2:46 UTC (Wed) by nicku (subscriber, #777) [Link] (3 responses)

How else can we show off the goodness of xscreensaver? :)

Your joke depends on the view that besides games and screensavers, there is no compelling need for 3D drivers. However, if you are interested in astronomy, then Celestia and Stellarium benefit greatly from the excellent 3D support by the free Xorg drivers for my old ATI 9250 AGP graphics cards.

(Try these wonderful software systems even if you weren't previously interested in astronomy :-)

Xorg 7.1 is in FC6, where it belongs

Posted Aug 16, 2006 10:17 UTC (Wed) by smulcahy (guest, #2758) [Link]

Hi,

I actually have come across these and would agree - they are beautiful examples of how 3d can be used other than for eye candy and gaming. Thanks for the pointer though.

-stephen

Xorg 7.1 is in FC6, where it belongs

Posted Aug 16, 2006 10:33 UTC (Wed) by danielpf (guest, #4723) [Link] (1 responses)

Celestia is indeed an excellent example of what can bring could 3D
graphics to non-game applications. There is a huge potential
also in other domains, like medical imaging, or more generally
complex multi-dimensional data rendering.

Xorg 7.1 is in FC6, where it belongs

Posted Aug 17, 2006 11:39 UTC (Thu) by wookey (guest, #5501) [Link]

Indeed. Geodata is another area where 3D can make huge difference.

For example the Survex cave survey visualisation tool benefits enormously from improved OpenGL 3D performance. It's certainly the only reason I ever expect to take any interest whatsoever in 3D graphics performance.