>We HAVE a uniform graphics API already. It's called X.
Cool. :-(
Linus, look at my situation: I'm currently moving into games design. I
want to use Linux as my platform but must be able to distribute my
developed software to the end user.
I don't want to make a full fledged X Distribution with all its
hassles and problems to send to my end users.
I don't need the full X stuff for my applications. Yes, I am happy to
have a nice, decent window system like X, but currently I'm forced to
use W95 (yuck), because there I have a clear defined _small_ interface
(DirectX, Direct 2D) and not a huge, bloated X system.
I want a simple way to set the system I'm running on into graphics
mode, run my application which uses a GUI tool framework for its
graphics and then leave the system, restoring it back to its original
state. No problem with W95. Big problem with Linux. :-(
SVGALib is _one_ way to go. Not a real nice, but better than X anyway.
I'd love to see an unified video kernel API just as we have with the
sound.
X may be the solution for _your_ problems. Fine. X _is_ cool and may
be the best GUI around. But it is not the solution to _my_ problems
and definitely not the solution to _all_ problems.
You may want to reconsider your standpoint. Not all Linux machines out
there are X machines.
> THAT is why this discussion is so totally useless. You're just asking
> for the kernel to support something that is _less_ capable than we
> already have. Do you think I'm so stupid that I'd go for something as
> braindead as that?
X can _not_, I repeat _NOT_ do anything that I need. It is to f*cking
big for most of my needs; I need a dozen or so different 2 MBytes
Binaries on my distribution CD and I must rely on
Joe-Average-Braindead to chose the right one and so on and so on.
A decend set of small, loadable kernel-modules would be much better
for my problems.
Ciao
Henning
-- Henning Schmiedehausen ...side by side in orbit... around a fairer SUN. barnard@forge.franken.de http://www.franken.de/users/forge/henning"Linux was made by foreign terrorists to take money from true US companies like Microsoft." -- Some AOL'er.