2D is not (repeat, not) expendable (was: Re: Xegl lives!)

[Daniel Stone]

On Tue, May 24, 2005 at 09:23:56PM -0400, Jon Smirl wrote:
> Shiny fast 3D can be had for $10 now.

As Adam said, think situations where $10 is unaffordable (in Indonesia,
that's about rp60000, which is in the 'pretty unaffordable' league;
and that's not even counting the fact that you won't actually get
something capable of decent 3D for rp60k over there).  Think situations
where you don't want to (or can't) change what you have -- which is
decent 2D and terrible or no 3D -- and need to make the best of that
situation.

That's when we need to have a compelling 2D architecture, with
acceleration for 2D operations.

While thinking that the world is 3D makes for a very comforting, and
much simplified, worldview, it is not the case; not in the least.  We
will have to continue developing good 2D solutions for the forseeable
future, and that means throwing away XAA and moving to KAA.

As others have said -- you are doubtless doing good work on Xgl, and
that's a good path to follow, but compelling 2D architectures and
solutions need to be developed in parallel.  2D is not expendable, and
will not be for quite some time yet.

Take my word for it -- as a distributor who deals with all the Xorg
users, as someone whose sister has a computer with a card with 3D
capabilities that could not accurately be described as 'acceleration',
as someone who has seen what Xgl can do, but knows it is not the
one-size-fits-all solution that you are seeking.  There is none.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <http://lists.x.org/archives/xorg/attachments/20050525/3d18921b/attachment.pgp>