Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 2nd Jan 2006 16:43 UTC, submitted by Anonymous
David Reveman has made the latest XGL source code available to download. This comes a few weeks after development of the project was criticised for being done 'behind closed doors'. There have been huge changes to XGL, the most significant being restructuring of the code, allowing XGL's GLX support to function on other drivers than the proprietary Nvidia one. Xcompmgr can currently be run under XGL with full acceleration provided that the proprietary ATI or Nvidia drivers are used. An OpenGL based compositing manager, 'Compiz' is currently in the works and a release is expected in February. David intends to get the code into freedesktop CVS as soon as possible, after which the code should eventually merge with Xorg.
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Member since:
2005-07-06
If you stick with "open source or die" and ATI/Nvidia never opens their hardware then we might as well forget about Linux on the desktop.
A proprietary driver should always be optional, but never a required default. If FOSS has to go partly closed source to "win" on the desktop, it has already lost.
If FOSS again becomes encumbered with any dependancy on closed source it doesn't matter if it has larger uptake. Then the core reason why FOSS exists in the first place has been slaughtered.
First get a fully Free implementation out the door and then enable the choice of tainting the system for those who are comfortable with it. Otherwise I see XGL and EGL chasing the proprietary drivers of the Graphics Leader du Jour for all eternity (be it ATI, Nvidia or an unknown third party) and a fork of X.org to keep it unencumbered from CSS driver dependancies for those who do care.
Even though you don't mind giving up Freedom in core infrastructure, it doesn't mean that others don't. Dependancy on closed drivers for display is the same as the Java trap. Your software is open, but foundation is not, still shackling people to money interests of lockin companies.