X and Eye Candy

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Evan Leibovitch <evan-ieNeDk6JonTYtjvyW6yDsg at public.gmane.org>

Thanks for the answer.

| There is (and will continue to be) a significant part of the
| computer-buying public that likes style over substance.

Yup.  I was only trying to figure out what was in it for me directly.
I figure that you and I might have similar needs.

| As for me, I can appreciate having some windows that are very
| transparent, and the cube paradigm seems slightly more useful than the
| current KDE and GNOME panels.

I rarely use the Gnome "Workspace Switcher".  I just get the biggest
monitor I can (hence the need for the fancy video card).  I've thought
about why I don't use the switcher more (no monitor is big enough) but
have no answer.

| The list is at http://getkororaa.com/releases/xgl/xgl-cards

Thanks for the list.

| As for the need for binary-only drivers, I guess this is another
| potential philosophical fight over the sacrifices in "freedom" people
| will make to get the features they like.

This isn't just philosophical.  One of the things I like about Linux
is that devices seem to be supported, in a realistic sense, well past
when the manufacturer is no longer interested in them.  In a
theoretical sense, forever (but this may require an unreasonable
amount of self-help).

As for 3d acceleration, we've not yet seen a pattern.  Old ATI cards
have open drivers that can do 3d.  This is not the case for newer ATI
cards nor for nVidia cards.  Intel drivers are open but the hardware
is not in the same league.  There were noises from VIA about open
drivers for their 3d stuff but they don't have much of a presence.
Matrox has apparently retreated both from Linux and from 3d.

We really need ATI or nVidia to open up the specs of their cards.  I'm
not holding my breath.

| Anyone wanting to use a
| built-in laptop modem or Centrino wireless under Linux has already had
| to make that leap. I can respect both POVs.

Actually, Centrino wireless has an open driver.  It needs a
binary-only firmware blob, but that is OK from a pragmatic standpoint.
As I understand it, the blob will work indefinitely, even if the Linux
driver has to change to match newer kernels.

Apparently the annoyingly ubiquitous Broadcom wireless chips have been
reverse engineered and an open source driver is available (working?
not sure).

I have a few PCMCIA/PC-CARD/SD hardware modems for the so-far-theoretical
time that I need a modem on a portable device.

| Release 0.1 doesn't support DRI but future versions will aim at
| supporting it.

My feelings about DRI are mixed anyway.  I think (but don't know for
sure) that it opens grave security risks for the kernel.
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml