Re: Rethinking the design of xwidgets

[Arthur Miller]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

>> Even on a GNU/Linux if user has an AMD/Nvidia gfx card there is some
>> firmware blob that gets installed and graphcis applications inclusive
>> Emacs run on it.
>
> Last I checked (many years ago), the Nouveau driver for Nvidia did not
> require a firmware blob.  Has it changed?
>
>
>         Stefan

No; I don't think it changed. I was refering to proprietary nv/amd
drivers. You pointed out that Intel has open sourced drivers. I just
checked and found:

"Intel’s Open Source Graphics Drivers is one of the most widely deployed driver 
stacks in the industry. These drivers are integrated seamlessly into Linux* PC 
client distributions, Google Chromebooks*, and Valve’s SteamOS* serving tens of 
millions of PC users. The Intel’s Open Source Vulkan driver for 5th generation 
Intel® Core™ processors and 6th generation Intel® Core™ processors (code-named 
Broadwell and Skylake) passes the Vulkan 1.0 Conformance Test Suite on these 
platforms and has experimental support for older platforms. Developers can 
either build the drivers from source code or directly get Linux distribution 
packages. Please go to 
https://01.org/linuxgraphics/blogs/jekstrand/2016/open-source-vulkan-drivers-intel-hardware
 for more information."


Now that was from an Intel's blog about game dev (and Vulkan), and
Intel's platform is dismissed for other reasons, so I don't know what to
say.

By the way I have also now checked the state of AMD cpus and ARM/PI.
It seems like they all have some kind of 'management' capabilities. Am I
correct? It was some blog I red it on.

So I really don't know what is sustainability in refusing to use newer
CPUs?

Insisting on using only 15 years old computers is not a sustainable
strategy for future, not for the majority of people and I guess not for
the development of FREE software or GNU movement if I can call it so.
Nor do I see it as a consistent strategy with current development either.

Anyone, don't get me wrong; I don't like those; nor do I propose
any solution, because I don't have; it is more of a general question.
Maybe I analyse the situation wrong; but I it's an honest consideration.