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1. Bernie (codewiz@mstdn.io)'s status on Thursday, 22-Dec-2022 06:43:30 UTC Bernie

   I was just admiring the release notes of Mesa 22.3, which is just 3 month of work from 22.2:
   https://docs.mesa3d.org/relnotes/22.3.0.html

   #mesa #opengl #vulkan #linuxdesktop #graphics #gpu

   • Bernie (codewiz@mstdn.io)'s status on Thursday, 22-Dec-2022 06:52:29 UTC Bernie

     in reply to

     I mean, Mesa has grown to the point that major #GPU vendors *have* to contribute code for their hardware or risk being at a disadvantage.

     Even #Qualcomm is participating nicely, and soon or later even #Nvidia will capitulate.

     #Mesa is succeeding in building the same momentum that made the Linux kernel a huge success.

   • Bernie (codewiz@mstdn.io)'s status on Thursday, 22-Dec-2022 06:56:24 UTC Bernie

     in reply to

     Look at this feature matrix: https://mesamatrix.net/

     How many companies on the planet have the money and the in-house talent to build a graphics stack supporting all this stuff without starting from #Mesa?

   • Bernie (codewiz@mstdn.io)'s status on Thursday, 22-Dec-2022 07:11:07 UTC Bernie

     in reply to

     There's just one little difference with linux: using permissive licenses (mostly MIT) instead of the GPL.

     This means that evil GPU vendors *can* use Mesa as a starting point for their proprietary drivers, without giving back. Oh no! 😠

     But, who will able to keep up with the pace development? The moment they fall behind, their hardware will stand out for missing the latest #Vulkan extensions, optimizations and bug fixes...

   • Bernie (codewiz@mstdn.io)'s status on Thursday, 22-Dec-2022 07:35:47 UTC Bernie

     in reply to

     • Dave Lane 🇳🇿

     @lightweight Indeed. Using the #GPL while signaling that all businesses are welcome to contribute.

     Linus gets a lot of press for his rude emails, but there were other notable leaders in the #FreeSoftware movement who were actively fighting against Red Hat, Canonical and all the other businesses who played a crucial role in the success of #Linux.

   • Dave Lane 🇳🇿 (lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Thursday, 22-Dec-2022 07:35:50 UTC Dave Lane 🇳🇿

     in reply to

     @codewiz yup. Using the GPL was the best thing Torvalds ever did.

   • Bernie (codewiz@mstdn.io)'s status on Thursday, 22-Dec-2022 07:44:58 UTC Bernie

     in reply to

     • Niklas Korz

     @niklaskorz Indeed, and they should!

     I predict they'll get there incrementally, open-sourcing parts of their stack that make most sense to to ease the support pain for themselves and for their customers.

     Perhaps they'll start from the most painful part, the kernel drm driver:
     https://github.com/NVIDIA/open-gpu-kernel-modules

   • Niklas Korz (niklaskorz@rheinneckar.social)'s status on Thursday, 22-Dec-2022 07:45:00 UTC Niklas Korz

     in reply to

     @codewiz I wish that was the case (i.e., companies making use of the fact mesa is MIT licensed). If Nvidia used mesa as the base for their proprietary driver, we'd deal with a lot less incompatibilities today.

   • Bernie (codewiz@mstdn.io)'s status on Thursday, 22-Dec-2022 07:56:50 UTC Bernie

     in reply to

     For example, look at this super cool mesh shaders feature that was merged into Mesa just yesterday by a Valve engineer:
     https://www.phoronix.com/news/Mesa-22.3-RADV-Mesh-Shader

   • Bernie (codewiz@mstdn.io)'s status on Thursday, 22-Dec-2022 07:59:06 UTC Bernie

     in reply to

     Now imagine being a GPU engineer at Evilcorp, and being forbidden by management to ask questions to the other Mesa developers...

     Maybe you're smart enough to figure out everything on your own... but if you're really smart, why would you be working for Evilcorp when there are similar jobs at Valve, Intel, AMD, Qualc... err... never mind! 😏

     #Mesa #GPU #Graphics #FreeSoftware #OpenSource #Linux

   • Bernie (codewiz@mstdn.io)'s status on Thursday, 22-Dec-2022 08:16:09 UTC Bernie

     in reply to

     • Niklas Korz

     @niklaskorz Wait a few more months, when the cheaper variants of the RDNA3 series get unveiled...

   • Niklas Korz (niklaskorz@rheinneckar.social)'s status on Thursday, 22-Dec-2022 08:16:12 UTC Niklas Korz

     in reply to

     @codewiz This whole thread made me even more eager to finally switch away from Nvidia, but I can't justify buying a new GPU just yet. :blobcatspace: