Short Overview: Current State of Mesa and OpenGL on Linux

[ Thanks to liquidat for this link. ]

"Graphics in Linux has several problems and issues: first of all there is only Intel providing real free graphics drivers--but Intel does not build high-end graphics software. Second, Microsoft did its usual monopoly homework, and everyone talks about DirectX 10--it becomes harder to port graphics apps between Windows and Linux because on Windows you most certainly want to use DirectX. Third there is OpenGL itself: the development stagnated for quite some time and the current OpenGL API does not support all the new cool hardware things out there. Fourth, and that is something I realized just few hours ago, the OpenGL implementation for Linux, Mesa, does only provide an OpenGL implementation for Version 1.5--although OpenGL 2.0 was introduced almost three years ago.

"The first problem might see changes in the future: Nvidia always provided advanced graphics drivers for the Linux community, and AMD at least said it would like to solve issues somehow..."

Complete Story

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