SGI Releases OpenGL As Free Software
Note that this is just the source code to SGI's reference implementation, and has absolutely no effect on anyone who you could conceivably care about.
Author
Well, it resolves a lot of issues that they have been having with Linux. And I care about Linux...
I'm not positive, but does it also mean that the source is released also? Or am I entirely wrong about this. If I am, it's still relevant news.
P.S. That was a fast reply.
I'm not positive, but does it also mean that the source is released also? Or am I entirely wrong about this. If I am, it's still relevant news.
P.S. That was a fast reply.
I believe the source code was already public, and indeed that the MesaGL code was based on it. What this does is it removes a number of restrictions SGI had previously placed on the code.
It sounds like what this actually means from a practical standpoint is that the Linux people can ship a better "free software" out of the box implementation with X, or something like that. I'm not sure how that could possibly matter, since if you needed graphics you probably have a implementation from an NVIDIA or ATI graphics driver. Maybe my understanding is wrong, but that's the impression I've gotten so far. I guess it probably affects Mesa and people using Mesa (which is...who, exactly?) the most.
It sounds like what this actually means from a practical standpoint is that the Linux people can ship a better "free software" out of the box implementation with X, or something like that. I'm not sure how that could possibly matter, since if you needed graphics you probably have a implementation from an NVIDIA or ATI graphics driver. Maybe my understanding is wrong, but that's the impression I've gotten so far. I guess it probably affects Mesa and people using Mesa (which is...who, exactly?) the most.
Quote:Original post by Promit
Maybe my understanding is wrong, but that's the impression I've gotten so far.
Ditto.
This release is bordering on being completely irrelevant. It's a software reference rasterizer. This won't affect you in the slightest, unless you are one of those people whose heads explode at the mere thought of using a closed source driver and who prefer using a SW renderer at 0.1 fps for political reasons...
So, meh. Who cares. I wish ATI would release good GL drivers for Linux already (and for Windows...)
Quote:Original post by MARS_999
Hey YannL, ATI just released Cat 8.9 and has some GL3.0 features in it...
I know. I am very skeptical about the quality of the driver. For the sake of my sanity, I won't touch it yet. I'll lean back and observe what will happen as other people start using it... ;)
Quote:Original post by Yann LQuote:Original post by MARS_999
Hey YannL, ATI just released Cat 8.9 and has some GL3.0 features in it...
I know. I am very skeptical about the quality of the driver. For the sake of my sanity, I won't touch it yet. I'll lean back and observe what will happen as other people start using it... ;)
Let hope they do so before the LHC really gets going or we won't be able to tell what caused the end of the world; the mini black hole or ATI putting out good GL drivers [grin]
Quote:Original post by Yann LQuote:Original post by MARS_999
Hey YannL, ATI just released Cat 8.9 and has some GL3.0 features in it...
I know. I am very skeptical about the quality of the driver. For the sake of my sanity, I won't touch it yet. I'll lean back and observe what will happen as other people start using it... ;)
You are being to hard on ATI. Writing drivers is not easy and GL is quite complex.
Quote:Original post by phantom
Let hope they do so before the LHC really gets going or we won't be able to tell what caused the end of the world; the mini black hole or ATI putting out good GL drivers [grin]
They're more likely to somehow make the universe turn itself inside-out by having more bugs than ASM opcodes in the driver...
Quote:
You are being to hard on ATI. Writing drivers is not easy and GL is quite complex.
You have to be kidding me...
Well, I'll better shut up now, just in case they have an ice blizzard warning in hell and ATI somehow managed to create usable drivers. But I have my doubts...
This topic is closed to new replies.
Advertisement
Popular Topics
Advertisement
