For Those Interested In Direct3D Over Gallium3D

[BlackStar]

I hate to be the one to break the bad news but Windows 7 isn't what made Microsoft the dominant player in the 90's.

Yeah, but Windows 7 is what is keeping Microsoft dominant in the '10s. Win95 might have been inferior but that's irrelevant now. Calling Win7 inferior... well, chances are most people outside these forums would disagree.

[pingufunkybeat]

It's inferior to OSX in every way and to Linux in most ways.

It's far better than their previous operating systems, though.

[V!NCENT]

Yeah, but Windows 7 is what is keeping Microsoft dominant in the '10s. Win95 might have been inferior but that's irrelevant now. Calling Win7 inferior... well, chances are most people outside these forums would disagree.

That's not the point here, BlackStar.

The point is how Microsoft got to even get to have the amount of money to make Windows 7.

Do I realy need to tell you how that happened? And in extent; do I need to tell you why Direct3D 10/11 should be handeled with extreme caution?

[devius]

It's inferior to OSX in every way and to Linux in most ways.

It's far better than their previous operating systems, though.

I have to agree on this. Having to use a windows 7 laptop sometimes, it feels so restricted. Anything other than copying files around and viewing plain text files requires that I hunt down and install a separate program. (package managers are really a small wonder ) And the damn OS takes up 15GB on a clean install!! What are they using all that space for?? And as if that is not enough it consumes 1GB of ram after boot. And I need to be running an antivirus and firewall... and still malware is able to get in. And it gets slower and slower as time goes by. And about once or twice a year it needs to be reinstalled. But on the upside every hardware company makes drivers for it. That's about the only advantage I can think of right now.

[BlackStar]

That's not the point here, BlackStar.

The point is how Microsoft got to even get to have the amount of money to make Windows 7.

Do I realy need to tell you how that happened? And in extent; do I need to tell you why Direct3D 10/11 should be handeled with extreme caution?

The thing is, Microsoft has more than enough ways to patent-bomb the Linux desktop should it choose to: samba, doc, wma, mono, opengl (through the SGI patents). Yeah, all of these could be removed if necessary - but so could d3d.

My point is that d3d support wouldn't leave us any worse of than we already are, but could bring some additional value. Few would use it as a primary API, so consider it as another tool in our arsenal.

A potentionally volatile tool if you will, but a tool nonetheless.

[Svartalf]

The thing is, Microsoft has more than enough ways to patent-bomb the Linux desktop should it choose to: samba, doc, wma, mono, opengl (through the SGI patents). Yeah, all of these could be removed if necessary - but so could d3d.

Actually, they're constrained pretty tightly at this point. They've been prattling on and on about "potential infringements" with a specific number thereof- for YEARS. You're not allowed to do that and expect to be able to enforce. Seriously.

If they were to step up and do something with Samba or OpenGL right about now, they'd lose if the parties sued had any financial resources- delay on mitigating your damages removes your ability to do so (or to even stop it's use in some cases) if you drag your feet any appreciable amount of time. 5-6+ years will pretty much scotch any attempt the moment someone has the resources to challenge the claims.

This stuff, things like Mono or the D3D tracker...that's another story altogether though. I'd honestly wished the Supreme Court of the US had gone a bit further with in re Bilski than they did. Would've lessened these risks considerably.

[V!NCENT]

BlackStar does have a point, but if Mono gets removed (building block), how do you expect D3D to be included in distro's.

Smaba, doc, Wine and WMA are just for compatibility and not primarily building blocks. Sure you can make an app with Wine, but that's intended for porting over to Linux.

And Mac OS X < Windows 7.

[TemplarGR]

Some people here have a false sense of what is a superior OS.

What is an operating system? Do you even know the definition of it?

An operating system is simply a software layer between hardware and application software. It manages hardware resource allocation, provides APIs and some additional utilities, and that is basically it.

When you are using a computer system, what is of interest to you is to run the applications you want. The OS is irrelevant. It could even be DOS, why not?

The ideal OS, is the one which hides itself and remains unnoticed by the user, while providing the ability to optimally run all the apps a user wants.

So, what makes Windows an inferior product? Win95, were designed for home users, with a special interest for gaming. It managed to be great at its time. It could run games very well, it could run almost all DOS apps flawlessly, it had (primitive) plug n play support, it could connect to the internet etc. It could do almost everything a home user could ask for, and it was fairly easy for non-technical users to use. So what makes it a failure?

Just because Win95 wasn't designed to host servers, or for heavy professional work, doesn't make it a failure. Windows NT were offered for that purpose...

So enough with the Microsoft hate and the FUD, you are not providing Linux any service...

[pingufunkybeat]

Some people here have a false sense of what is a superior OS.

What is an operating system? Do you even know the definition of it?

An operating system is simply a software layer between hardware and application software. It manages hardware resource allocation, provides APIs and some additional utilities, and that is basically it.

When you are using a computer system, what is of interest to you is to run the applications you want. The OS is irrelevant. It could even be DOS, why not?

The ideal OS, is the one which hides itself and remains unnoticed by the user, while providing the ability to optimally run all the apps a user wants.

So, what makes Windows an inferior product? Win95, were designed for home users, with a special interest for gaming. It managed to be great at its time. It could run games very well...

Dude, just stop it, please.

[BlackStar]

Dude, just stop it, please.

If you could suspend your Microsoft hate-trigger for a moment you'd see that he actually has a point. I don't know if you used Win95 back then but it did what you asked it to. Yeah, looking back now it was unstable and inefficient but compared to MS-DOS/Win3.11 it was a revelation.