On 14-Jun-2004, Dave Airlie wrote: > > > > So? My sister still uses a P120, and is happy with it. Why should she be > > > forced to upgrade? > > I think that is a bit petty really, please try and keep this > discussion some way in the bounds of logic, at some point you have to > throw away older systems, X works on these systems now, we want to build a > new version of X that works on top of newer cards using features of these > cards, the older systems can still use X as they do now however > development will slow on XAA drivers and newer applications will use newer > features stopping them from working on the older systems...
I think its possible this thread is almost falling into flamewar land. I think this thread has merit, but people's time is being wasted if we get too far off topic. I agree that users sometimes should be forced to upgrade; but I also agree that users should be allowed to keep their old hardware, even if this limit's their options. If someone is just word processing and emailing all day, as long as the machine can physically keep doing this task, I see nothing wrong with this; but God help you if you want to upgrade software, the example p120 is starting to get too old. However, in addition to this, I also believe users should be forced to upgrade software if it improve's their experience, helps developers, and doesnt run any slower. Infact, I believe that a uber-API that combines fbcon and dri/drm (making a unified graphics acceleration and basic hardware access api, which is what we should have had a decade ago...) would not harm the user's experience in any way, infact, using "3D hardware" (as opposed to the very much lacking "2D hardware" that is really really slow compared to the "2D over 3D API" technique (ie, using, say, opengl to draw 2D graphics) when available would make the user's experience that much more rich. Now, I doubt that example p120 has a supported 3D accelerator, so XAA would still have a traditional 2D backend, which would be used here. This 2D XAA backend would, of course, be recoded to use fbcon concepts instead of the (arguably outdated) X11 methods (which all the useful stuff would be folded into fbcon instead, and help all apps, X11-using and fbcon-using alike). So, either way, it would be a win win situation for all users and developers, and users should be forced to upgrade. In summary, (if you wernt paying attention) hardware upgrades are bad, hardware obsolence are good, and software upgrades are good. (And since these software upgrades are free (contexually, as in beer), the user doesnt have to shell out $$$ like they have to with Microsoft, a company famous for obsoleting software, and forcing users up a flawed upgrade path, so X11 and kernel upgrades are doubly good.) -- Patrick "Diablo-D3" McFarland || [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music." -- Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989
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