I would like to propose adding the following new settings to shared settings which are currently under the control of the XSETTINGS system.

Net/MinimizeCPUUsage
 Bool False

The value would be set to True for SunRay or other multi-user systems.

Net/DisplayCapability
 String "hw_accel_none"

We have identified the following possible values:

"hw_accel_full", i.e. hardware 2D and 3D acceleration
"hw_accel_partial", i.e. hardware 2D acceleration
"hw_accel_none", i.e. no hardware acceleration
"network_display", e.g. remote display
"persistent_display", i.e. as proposed for $100 laptop

These values being determined at the start of a user session and may change during a user session, e.g. when a user connects to the display using Vino.

The idea is to allow applications to modify their behavior depending on the environment they are running in.

If Net/MinimizeCPUUsage is true then xscreensaver could just blank the screen instead of running programs which draw interesting patterns on the screen and consume CPU.

Another possibility is where an application does expensive processing at regular intervals, e.g. GNOME System Monitor processing /proc entries very frequently is expensive and so it should only do so on demand.

The Net/DisplayCapability setting can be used by different applications to adapt its UI rendering, (e.g screen update, animation, composite feature) to the apprporiate level.

For instance the stock ticker would not scroll the text all the time if Net/DisplayCapability were set to network_display and only update at a preset interval or pop up a dialog warning the user that this applet should not be used in a network display environment.

The window manager, metacity, could enable its composite manager if Net/DisplayCapability were set to hw-accel_full and otherwise disable it.

If Net/DisplayCapability were set to hw_accel_partial font antialiasing would be set but it were set to a lower capability then font antialiasing would be disabled.

Padraig
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