R600 Gallium3D Getting Close On OpenGL 3.3 Support

[Ericg]

I don't like the kernel release model and I don't think it would suit Mesa. Mesa is usually fairly stable even during heavy development and new features are being usually developed in separate feature branches, which are then reviewed, rebased, and merged. I think the current Mesa release model is probably the best we can have.

Okay, hence why I asked for your three's input specifically haha. Just out of curiousity, what is it that you don't like about the kernel's release style? Things seem fairly stable even during RC's (im running 3.8rc3 right now, before I ran rc1)

[marek]

What are the odds of moving Mesa to the kernel's release style? Tag release --> Two week merge window --> 1 RC a week, with say a minimum of 5 RC's, that puts us at 7 weeks. Tag release. Pattern starts again.

I get the benefit of a nice steady 6month release schedule but something like the graphics stack-- like the kernel, I feel like needs to be a little more rapid release. This way if a feature isn't quite ready, its not a big deal to just release a month and a half or 2months later. The piglit tests help to ensure we don't regress and break things so its not even an argument of "Rapid release means rapid breakage!"

Any input from Kayden? Airlied? Marek?

I don't like the kernel release model and I don't think it would suit Mesa. Mesa is usually fairly stable even during heavy development and new features are being usually developed in separate feature branches, which are then reviewed, rebased, and merged. I think the current Mesa release model is probably the best we can have.

[DanL]

What are the odds of moving Mesa to the kernel's release style?

IIRC, VMWare has a lot to do with mesa's release style and they like it the way it is.

[Ericg]

What are the odds of moving Mesa to the kernel's release style? Tag release --> Two week merge window --> 1 RC a week, with say a minimum of 5 RC's, that puts us at 7 weeks. Tag release. Pattern starts again.

I get the benefit of a nice steady 6month release schedule but something like the graphics stack-- like the kernel, I feel like needs to be a little more rapid release. This way if a feature isn't quite ready, its not a big deal to just release a month and a half or 2months later. The piglit tests help to ensure we don't regress and break things so its not even an argument of "Rapid release means rapid breakage!"

Any input from Kayden? Airlied? Marek?

[archibald]

I find it exciting that we now have two open source drivers with OpenGL 3.1 support (particularly as neither is far from OpenGL 3.3).

Intel pushed up the last two version numbers so it would be nice if the bump to 10.0 could be a result of both AMD and Intel drivers.

[phoronix]

Phoronix: R600 Gallium3D Getting Close On OpenGL 3.3 Support

The open-source AMD "R600g" Gallium3D driver is slowly but surely closing in on OpenGL 3.3 support for this open-source Linux graphics driver that supports from the Radeon HD 2000 through Radeon HD 6000 GPUs...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTI3Mzg