X and Eye Candy

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Lennart Sorensen <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org>

| I guess the 7600GT will be the new cheaper option for dual link, and
| 7900 will be a 2x dual link option (but expensive).
| 
| I don't know of any cheap dual link cards either though. :)

The ATI Radeon x1800 and higher have two dual link DVI interfaces.
Lower models have only one.  The x1300 is inexpensive and fanless.  If
only they had Linux support.

With the nVidia 7800GTX (and probably the ATI x1800) I felt that I
needed to upgrade the power supply in my stock HP computer.  I don't
know for sure because nVidia does't publish usable specs on power
requirements (HP does provided OK specs on what they'll provide for
add-in boards).  Grrr.

| I suspect it just warps things a bit.  I can't think of any way it is
| helpful.  Eyecandy usually isn't.

Some eye candy is nice.  I remember the old days when moving a window
was moving a wire frame; the window would be repainted after the new
position was selected.  The current way (dragging the whole window) is
much nicer.

3d buttons and stuff look nicer than what we originally had.

I'm even getting resigned to colour.

| > - (SuSE's) Xgl apparently precludes DRI applications
| > 
| > - (Red Hat's) aiglx seems to require the window manager to do the
| >   magic.  Perhaps only one window manager (Metacity) will be allowed.
| 
| No, it seems the composit extension in either design should work with
| any window manager that uses that extension.  Both Xgl and aiglx are
| extensions to X that implement accaleration for this feature.  At least
| that is my understanding.  SuSE decided to make a completely new x
| server, while redhat decided to make it a module for X.org and should
| hence support any other feature X.org does, while the Xgl option only
| does whatever they have implemented so far in their X server.

I don't really understand the anatomy.  Somehow the Xgl folks think
that aiglix is tied to Metacity.

Articles that I've found useful:

http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xorg/2006-February/013306.html
	AIGLX, metacity, nvidia and Xgl

	Start of a recent thread by David Reverman, the originator &
	head of Xgl project.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xgl
	Useful overview.  A bit questionable.  For example, it lists
	AIGLX as a backend for Xgl.

http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/newsletters/accelerated_x/index_p1.html
	Accelerated X flame wars! -- Maybe not

	I found this quite useful.  Where much of my understanding
	comes from.

http://dri.freedesktop.org/~jonsmirl/graphics.html
	The State of Linux Graphics

	Realy good overview.  A bit obsolete -- dates back to the end
	of last summer.  Written by a guy who quit the Xgl project (he
	was working on Xegl).


http://airlied.livejournal.com/22700.html
	Xgl vs AIGLX - the missing bit (and a rant)

	Main point: current 3d drivers are crap.  Improvement is not
		happening at a reasonable speed.
	Inferred point: AIGLX requires more driver work.
	Conclusion: Xgl is more likely to work than AIGLX
	(I'm not sure that I got this right.)

| > I may have this wrong -- I've never tried any of these things.

After reading all that stuff, I'm still not confident that I
understand enough about how all this works or should work.
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