From: mslicker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> I sure wish these NIC people would wake up and realize their
> product would
> be a hell of lot better geared toward business customers than as a
> consumer device for which it couldn't possibly have much of a
> market for.
Yes. I also mentioned it to them. Maybe if enough people mention it,
and then proceed to not buy the consumer version of the system,
they might see the light sooner. Sigh.
Ideally, they'd change the flash contents to full EtherBoot and remove
the CD drive, putting the $10 saving into a higher quality keyboard.
From: mslicker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> I keep hearing that 3D over X isn't feasible, but I have no idea where
> these people are coming from. X has a very long history of
> being used for
> 3D rendering. [...]
> Why do people say this is not feasible? X isn't a bitmap
> protocol, it's
> more like postscript.
I think it's for three reasons ...
(1) For a long time, the default Linux install used Mesa.
This runs on the server side and dumps bitmaps to the client.
For a 768-1024 pixel display, about 2MB of data is transferred
which is usable for static 3D presentation graphics but useless
for interactive ... it's 2 seconds of 10bT and 1/4 sec of 100bT
from after the rendering is done until the picture is visible.
(2) Most old X terminals don't support 3D, forcing this mode too.
The XFree86v3 LTSP didn't have 3D support at all, not even software,
unless the administrator went to the trouble of installing it.
I did, and for most of my work it is quite acceptable. However,
it can burn through a lot of memory so you either need a lot more
local RAM or you have to get the NFS swapping tuned up carefully.
Otherwise, the X server exits unexpectedly ... irritates end user.
(3) Most people, these days, use 3D primarily for gaming and
the fraction of a second additional latency is totally unacceptable.
Running FlightGear, for example, I've got two computers that both
give 25fps when running natively and about 8fps acting as a terminal.
By the way, if you're going to add GLX support to your LTSP systems,
be sure to make the config file selective about which terminals
turn it on. For example, if you have a 486 PC as a terminal that
has absolutely no accelerated graphics (i.e. not even XAA!).
I was forever accidentally starting up FlightGear that way and it
takes a _long_ time for the 486 to draw the one frame - that must
be finished before X delivers the 'abort simulator' keystrokes.
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