It\'s a moot point, and I said so since the beginning.
What are you saying is a moot point? The 6 months or microsoft switching to openGL? Make yourself a bit clearer.
However, for the record the Wine guys have the documented APIs for DX, they know how they *should* render, and they\'re a bunch of brilliant software developers, especially with Novell/TransGaming/Whatever pumps in resources into developing Wine even further. And today the situation is merely okay, and much remains to be done. That says something.
Says what? That for all their brilliance and innovation they still couldnt get it working perfectly? What is the point you\'re trying to make here? All im claiming is that if someone had to make a DirectX emulation, then the people who wrote the DirectX library would probablly be in the box seat, agreed?
Yes, Microsoft is the only company in a position to push their own, proprietary *lock-in* technologies to this extent. That doesn\'t make it right. We have an Open Standard. It\'s called OpenGL.
No, openGL is not the standard. Do you have any proof of it being the industry standard, apart from the fact you would like it to be? Lets see how many seconds the industry \"standard\" lasts when microsoft doesnt support it with vista? Microsoft has an equivalent, similar API to OpenGL. Saying OpenGL is the standard because it works on a wider variety of o/s is a void point when the one it doesnt work on (soon to be) has 95% of the market share. Now that I read your statement again, you said \"Open\" standard. What is that meant to mean? Open source standard? Well since Windows is a *closed* source program, they dont really need to adhere to open Standards? Clarify what you mean by that.
No matter how great DirectX is, as long as it isn\'t open, it won\'t be used by anything non-MS.
So? \"anything non-MS\" comprises of approximatly 5% of the market. I dont exactly think microsoft are really that concerned about that, you know. In fact, microsoft wouldnt even want Linux etc to be using DirectX, because then it increases the portability of the tons of windows app using directX. DirectX is a technology designed for windows.
And it\'s not too hard to imagine that in five years, Microsoft will have around 60% of all desktop computers in the world, if not less. China, Taiwan, Brazil, South Korea, Japan, South Africa... All countries that in the very near future won\'t be running Windows as their primary OS. See the links below for more info. (And yes, I\'m aware it\'s \"only\" the governments that switch at the moment, but the people will follow their lead, and probably sooner rather than later.)
rofl... South Korea? Hahaha. Japan? Get real. Lets have a look at the links you gave me:
On April 3, the first China-Japan-S.Korea IT ministers\' conference for OSS (Open Source Software) was held in Beijing. It was jointly sponsored by China Ministry of Information, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications of Japan, and Ministry of Information and Communication of ROK. The three countries signed \"the Memo for Cooperation on Opening Source Code\".
Big jump from Governments holding a meeting about open source, to \"Majority of country using linux and OpenGL in 5 years\".
The second article was just a puff piece showing some governments that had open source or linux inititives in place: Things like
\"and they are showing keen interest in helping accelerate the maturation of Linux on the desktop\". Thats not a definitive statement: thats an opinion about their intentions which may lead to growth of linux in the future. Also
\"The use of embedded Linux in Japan\'s consumer electronics industry is growing rapidly, as is the adoption of carrier-grade Linux in telephony\". Notice they dont give any figures, just \"is growing rapidly\". And not the consumer desktop linux division, but using linux in telephone communications. Slight difference there.
The third article comes from \"Desktop Linux\", and is so obvious a neutral third party here, and couldnt possibly be basied towards one side. Still, at least it gaves some figures.
\"National Public Radio (NPR) is airing a story about the Brazillian government\'s initiative to migrate 40 percent of its computers to Free Software such as Linux by 2006. The four-minute spot includes great quotes from Brazillian government officials, including one likening Microsoft\'s marketing tactics to those of a drug dealer\".Someone airing a story about a supposed aim to convert 40% to linux by the end of 2006. Well, thats a government aim. Certaintly the brazilian government has a proven track record of trying to implement cutting edge technologies for the common good. Have a look at their failed Ethanol fuel substitution experiment, and you\'ll see what I mean. Of course, I\'m doubtful that switching to linux can cause widespread deforestation, envrionmental damage, huge social problems and billions of lost dollars, but well you never know...
In fact, if we\'re going to quote Biased articles, well I could go to microsoft.com and quote their articles as showing why Windows is better than linux in those countries you mentioned.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/facts/worldwide/default.mspxHowever, of course the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian etc pages are in the local pages, so I cant quote some juicy propaganda for you.
As for your last article:
\"Countries in Africa are gradually adopting strategies that promote the use of Linux as an alternative to Windows, and South Africa is leading the charge, with the government\'s recent approval of an open source software adoption plan.\"Gradually adopting
strategies that
promote the use of Linux as an
alternative to Windows. All very key words to note there.
In conclusion, I think you\'re making a bit of a jump from those articles to 40% of the world using linux in 5 years time. Time will tell, eh?
(And yes, I\'m aware it\'s \"only\" the governments that switch at the moment, but the people will follow their lead, and probably sooner rather than later.)
Yes, because we all follow what our governments do. Well, at least those simple minded fools in China, Korea, Japan, Brazil and India will. [/sarcasm]
So then I ask ye - Why destroy OpenGL and make your OS suck even more? No, better to start playing nice, while there\'s still time, and start building trust instead of trying to bully your own APIs through.
Well, if you dont understand why they\'re doing it now, as I\'ve explained to you earlier, then you never will. Since they have created the most successful computing business ever, and created some of the richest people in the world along with it, one would think they have some idea of how to run a business.
Exactly. I can live without the eye-candy, but I\'m in a minority. And what if there\'s some killer functionality that requires composite desktop to work? All this will do is set back the industry by a couple of years. They can\'t stop the use of OpenGL, but they sure as hell can try.
What if? What if? The point is there
isnt some killer OpenGL app, and, with microsoft making these moves, it will ensure that any killer apps in the future will at least have DirectX support, if they want it to be a commerical success. And if its an open source killer app, then someone could just take the source code and port it to DirectX to get it to work on windows.
Of course, much can happen yet. Vista is just in public beta so far. It\'s highly possible the API will change, and that\'s why they won\'t give card vendors the specs to write drivers that play nice with OpenGL and Aeroglass at the same time. I\'m hoping that is just what it is. But if Vista ships the way it is right now... Then they deserve every harsh word they\'ll get.
Let\'s wait and see, shall we?
Yes, and they deserve every harsh word they got for Netscape, and every other technology they killed... but somehow I dont think they\'re too worried about harsh words. I still dont think It will be this way when Vista Ships, but either way it wont affect me, since im not buying vista, and even if I did, I\'ll just turn the eye candy off anyway.
