Showing posts with label xgl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label xgl. Show all posts

Goodbye XGL, Goodbye AIGLX (Hello Xorg 7.1?)

Something awesome happened today.

NVIDIA released a beta of their new 1.0-9625 drivers. I'll just skip to the good part, as NVIDIA's James Jones explained it:

Neither Xgl or AIGLX are required to use compiz with the NVIDIA drivers now that they natively support GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap.

Xgl is an X server that renders using OpenGL and runs on top of another X server. It was the first X server available to support GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap.

AIGLX stands for Accelerated Indirect GLX. It is not related to compiz or GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap at all, except that support for GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap in the open source DRI OpenGL drivers required it. NVIDIA has always supported Accelerated Indirect GLX rendering.

NVIDIA supports both Direct AND Indirect rendering with the GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap extension. Users should not need to install any additional software to run compiz with new NVIDIA drivers. Please see the just-created sticky thread covering the basic setup steps.

That's right. These drivers feature hardware support for the mystical "GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap" extension, which now allows your videocard to accelerate your wobbly windows, among other things.

The catch? They require Xorg 7.1 or later. That means Ubuntu 6.06/Dapper Drake users are out of luck, unless they feel like compiling X from source (not such a good idea.) The good news is that Ubuntu 6.10/Edgy Eft features Xorg 7.1, so NVIDIA users will be able to benefit from this when Edgy is released (or if they're running Edgy already).

If you're using Xorg 7.1 and want to give it a shot, here's the sticky with instructions. (Also, this feedback thread might come in handy.)

Your move, ATI.

Update: A reader has pointed our that AIGLX has been merged into Xorg 7.1, and it's now enabled by default. So while it's not quite "goodbye" forever to AIGLX, you don't actually have to do anything manually to get it (and you shouldn't have to worry about it).
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Linux's Public Image

I was engaging in a random Skypecast a few days ago, and I found myself talking to a Mac user who was considering installing Linux on one of his Macs.

He explained to me that he was reading about Red Hat Linux, and that he saw there was a lot of console-based stuff going on in the screenshots. From what he was telling me, I got the impression that he didn't realize there IS a graphical interface for Linux (X, or Xorg these days).

I explained to him that he should try looking at Fedora Core or Ubuntu Linux, since much of the information on Red Hat Linux on the internet is very outdated (that's the price of being around forever, I guess). I continued to tell him that any recent version of these operating systems feature a user-friendly graphical interface that rivals the usability of Windows and OS X. (I was speaking about Gnome from experience, but I wouldn't discount KDE at all here.)

This is precisely one of the reasons why I blog about Linux - I want to spread the word about what Linux is really like today, and where it's going.

I've talked to so many people who've reacted to the word "Linux" with, "Oh, all that text-based stuff?". The Linux community needs to do everything they can to shake this image. Somehow I don't think billboard advertisements are going to show people what Linux is really like.
Frankly, the Ubuntu Video project is going to be more effective in this area. Cool YouTube videos don't hurt either. :)

I'm curious to see what other people think the best way to show people what Linux is really like is. Any thoughts?

Also, have you ever talked to someone who had an extremely outdated view of what Linux is like? Share you story in the comments below!
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