Hi Bryan, On Fri, May 16, 2008 at 5:33 PM, Thrall, Bryan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> I am also curious about the factors that hold developers back from >> deploying sims on Linux, i.e. even if Linux is superior at all the >> above, what prevents one from move to the platform? > > One of the primary reasons I've heard is that graphics card driver > support is not as good as on Windows (i.e. lacking features, less > responsive to bug reports, etc.).
On the NVidia driver side I don't know of any features that are available under Windows but not Linux so I think this side of things is probably a non issue, except perhaps for the misconception that there might be differences. Responsiveness to bug reports is something I can't directly comment on as I've stood back from chasing driver developers about OpenGL bugs, rather just providing moral support for users who do go through this. In terms of bug reports about drivers under Windows vs Linux I'd say that if anything Windows users have reported more problems such as with mulit-threading issues. NVidia drivers do tend to be pretty good on both platforms. Alas I can't say the same for ATI drivers, especially under Linux. Overall I'd say worries about Nvidia OpeNGL driver features and support are most likely misplaced. Elements are far less unequivocal is that the file systems available perform far better than the Windows file system, so database paging performs better. Threading issues also occur far less often under Linux than under Windows, X11 has long been geared up for multi-threaded usage. Memory management under Linux is also far better than Windows - it's been quite common over the past couple of years for clients of mine have been struggling to get Windows apps for perform well when under high loads, with stalls quite and memory issues plaging development, while linux versions of the apps just chug along without dropping a frame. The compilers under Linux are also now better than the equivalents under Windows - update, cull and draws are typically faster under Linux than Windows on the same hardware. So when I hear people on the mailing list struggling to get things working smoothly under Windows I know one of the easiest remedies is try the apps under Linux. This isn't because the OSG is optimized for Linux, the OSG is about as platform agnostic as an project could be in this sector, its down to the underlying system being more efficient and better balanced which is why things work better. Robert. _______________________________________________ osg-users mailing list osg-users@lists.openscenegraph.org http://lists.openscenegraph.org/listinfo.cgi/osg-users-openscenegraph.org
