Hi Alex,Kernel modules are not inherently faster. the reason directx (and openGL) seem so fast on windows is because the manufacturers and MS tweak the drivers for every last bit of performance. Plus they are able to utilize interfaces that are not accessable in xfree86 due to IP concerns. Some xfree86 drivers actually are faster or support more features than their windows counterparts.
How can we prove this with real life data?
I do realize XFree86 is VERY fast in some situations - for example I have seen Quake 3 running faster on GNU/Linux than on Windows - on the same hardware.
I actually have made Windows Unreal Tournament run almost as fast on Linux as Windows. (I know UT 2003 comes with a Linux precompiled binary, I just wanted to test Wine+XFree86 efficiency in such a situation.)
In both cases nVidia's non-free drivers were used. So at least I have an internal proof that X is not slow as people seem to think. I actually try to educate users here that X is good and networking is wonderful, and bottlenecks are elsewhere.
Still - these are technical terms, and some people - not only gamers, are either unable or unwilling to grasp or listen to explanations.
They need shiny things, FPS and white papers.
What we did here a month ago during our OpenFest - festival for Free software, were some demonstrations. I was actually very amazed by XFree86 abilities.
Here is a link to a shortish movie: http://ncbis.ue-varna.bg/vaso/of/mov/dscf1156.avi - 3,5??
It is my machine - AMD Athlon 1700+, 256 DDR SDRAM, nVidia GeForce 3 200, VIA KT266+ based motherboard with RedHat 9.0 demonstrating Gnome 2.4
What is seen is:
1. Top right - TOTEM playing Matrix 3 trailer (MPEG4 coded), local
2. Bottom right - GNOMEMEETING with a USB web cam showing some of the demonstrators as they try to demonstrate ;-), local (the bluish oval thing that rushes in is actually me ;-)
3. Bottom left - MPLAYER showing a DVD film, local
4. Top left - BB - a demonstration of aalib - rasterization using ASCII text. remote - this is run on another computer and just visualized via X networking abilities.
5. Middle - Windows Half-Life, run remotely under wine, using its OpenGL rasterizer, visualized via X networking abilities and running with hardware acceleration.
None of the visitors believed me when I told them the hardware specs. They looked inside my box to check that I was not lying.
So - I am talking about similar things:
1. Tests
2. Demos,
4. Games,
5. 3d heavy applications
etc, etc.
What can we really do to prove to infidels that XFree86 works great? Logic most of the times fails, explanation like usage of IPC, latency tests etc. also fails, people just scream "Kernel graphics g0000d, X b4444d" and it is demos like this that help me shut them up.
What can we do?
al_shopov
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