Greg Kroah-Hartman is a longtime developer of the Linux kernel, known for his work maintaining USB drivers. O'Reilly Media recently interviewed Greg about his claim that the Linux kernel now supports more devices than any other operating system ever has, as well as why binary-only drivers are illegal, and how the kernel development process works.
"I went and asked every single hardware manufacturer, the big guys that ship the boxes, Dell, IBM, HP--what do you ship that isn't supported by Linux? They came back with nothing. Everything is supported by Linux. If you have a device that isn't supported by Linux that's being shipped today, let me know.".
If you would like to take up Greg KH on his claim, his email address is greg AT kroah.com
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Member since:2007-02-17
That is because opengl and Directx are two totally different animals and comparing the two in-terms of game development is stupid. Anything that Directx can do graphically, opengl can do and then some. What opengl doesn't have is support for joysticks, sound support, etc. That is left up to other api and libraries. That is not what opengl is about, its a graphics api built to to get 3d data to and from your hardware, its not a game api, and such doesn't support what we would expect from an api tailored specifically for game develpment. To call opengl niche is naive at best. Opengl is used in almost every major 3d content creation system in existence including the ones used to create 3d games that run on directx. 3dsMax (has a directx option but its extremely unstable), Maya, XSi, Houdini, I can keep going, all have opengl at their cores. The iphone uses opengl es, so does the PSP and the PS3. You can't compare opengl and Directx, people keep making that mistake not realizing that opengl is the basis for a lot of graphic applications that have absolutley no relation to games. Compiz runs on opengl, Quartz (OSX graphics backend that allows things like expose and hardware accelerated eye candy) is based on opengl. Directx will never be more than what i is now and people who haven't a clue spout this opengl vs. directx nonsens without knowing what they are talking about. Opengl isn't going anywhere, especially in the content creation market where it is most prevalent. In-fact I'll argue that directx is the niche because, regardless of how popular games are its only one market and while directx does have other uses, its only used sparingly in certain areas as compared to opengl. Games aren't the be-all end-all, there are other markets out there that pull major amounts of customers and cash, one of them is the CAD market where opengl is king.
Member since:2007-01-22
Maya, etc those are all niche. Most people don't get 3D cards for content creation. They get them for games. The games that are cross platform use OpenGL. If that market is big enough, the OpenGL people will care about the needs of game developers as well as content creators. if not then those games will eventually be outdated and everyone will use directx.
I know that there are many linux advocates who want an alternative to the Microsoft monopoly. I don't see how you can get there without a focus on games.
Edited 2008-11-03 00:24 UTC
Member since:2007-02-17
OpenGL is not (any longer) competition for DirectX on the Windows platform.
However, OpenGL beats DirectX hands down overall ... even in games.
To illustrate this for yourself, just walk into an "Electronic games" store and do a quick rough approximation headcount inspection of the games on the shelves:
DirectX games: Xbox and Windows PC.
OpenGL games: everything for other games consoles.
Java games: everything for a phone or handheld.
DirectX games are in a distinct minority.
Edited 2008-11-03 01:45 UTC
Member since:
2007-01-22
OpenGL is successful as a niche but not as competition for DirectX. I'm more concerned about getting a viable alternative to Microsoft than whether everything is 100% pure open source.
I don't think Apple cares about games that much either...unless they are for the iphone.
Edited 2008-11-02 23:05 UTC