Hadron wrote:
OpenCl is very linked with OpenGL and GPUs.
No it's not. OpenCL is about simplifying the use of special
purpose multicore processors like the Cell or the upcomming
Larabee. Heck, you could even use it to develop programs for
supercomputers. If you do graphics with that stuff is a whole
different story. OpenCL is not intended to replace GLSL.
It's intended to replace propritary systems like CUDA. That
CUDA's first runtime environment was a multistream processor
based of the GeForce8 architecture was due to the developer of
CUDA - they had the architecture ready to use.
As I do. What I do NOT advocate is yet another "initiative"
with Apple involved which takes the eye off stuff which is
still not supported properly by the entertainment industry for
one.
I don't like some aspects of Apple, to be precise, I don't like
how it mutated from a innovator in IT into a lifestyle accescior
trademark. But one thing is for sure: The BIG entertainment
industry goes only to where the money is. And still Apple has a
larger market share on the multimedia desktop as Linux. Sad but
true. And Apple has become all about entertainment.
So what are the odds, that entertainment software will be
published for MacOS X vs. Linux? DirectX is a Microsoft only
API, and game studios finally feel, that they've got locked in.
When they finally decide to support other plattforms, they will
go for Apple first, since those are the machines
with "Entertainment" all written on it. But Apple also means
OpenGL for graphics, of which Linux directly profits. For two
reasons:
* OpenGL applications are inherently easy to port between
platforms - you have to replace only a small layer of Framework
* MacOS X builds on a BSD system, this makes it even easier to
port to Linux
Already Blizzard is publishing WoW for MacOS X and they're
planning a Linux version, too. I'm pretty sure that, if WoW
would have been locked into DirectX this wouldn't be done. But
Blizzard deliberately choose MacOS X as target plattform, as it
gains more subscriptions to WoW.
And in recent news, Myst/Uru Online is going to be open sourced
unter GPL license. I'm pretty sure, we'll see Linux port soon
enough.
And don't forget that though OpenGL has been called "Open" for a
long time, but actually it was under the control of SGI. And
there hasn't been a single free (as in speech) reference
implementation of OpenGL and there still isn't. Mesa3D is
feature complete, but it never went through a compliance test,
so the Mesa3D project can't advertise with being _a_ OpenGL
implementation. It's "merely" a implementation of the
specification.
And as there is a OSS implementation of the OpenGL spec, there
will be a OSS implementation of the OpenCL spec. And it will be
in competition with commercial implementations. And you should
be glad, that a big company like Apple plays the early adoptor
and takes the risk. Once OpenCL is established in a larger user
base those will likely port to Linux and a OSS OpenCL
implementation.
Just for the record: OpenGL was avaliable on
Windows years before it was avaliable on Linux. There were only
CSS implementations for expensive graphics workstations, and if
it were not for Microsoft, we'd have no cheap OpenGL capable
consumer hardware, but only propritary APIs like the dead for
good Glide.
Further I'd like to remind you, that Apple is now main developer
of two core OSS projects: CUPS (you want to print stuff, don't
you) and Webkit (Konqueror anyone?)
Wolfgang Draxinger
