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[edit] Where is it used?

Perhaps some information on where its currently used? (IE practical applications of Mesa that exist)

[edit] Software only?

I'd like to point out that the single item in the Disadvantages section is incorrect. Mesa started as a software renderer, but it is now used as the OpenGL-compatible frontend on many hardware drivers. OpenGL is more than just an interface to the hardware, it's a complex state machine and it would be pointless for every hardware driver/manufacturer to reimplement the "frontend". The DRI drivers use the Mesa code for their libGL and the parts that need software emulation. Even before DRI, there were a few hardware drivers included in the Mesa source e.g The 3dfx Voodoo I/II drivers. IIRC, Brian Paul even wrote most of Mesa with the intent of one day driving hardware, so adding the hardware drivers was relatively simple. Imroy 13:51, 2005 Jun 8 (UTC)

Ok, I finally removed the "Disadvantages" section because no-one else had. It only had one item and it was totally false. Apparently 65.26.235.246 didn't even read the Mesa FAQ when he wrote the original:

1.2 Does Mesa support/use graphics hardware?
Yes. Specifically, Mesa serves as the OpenGL core for the open-source XFree86/DRI OpenGL drivers. See the DRI website for more information.
There have been other hardware drivers for Mesa over the years (such as the 3Dfx Glide/Voodoo driver, an old S3 driver, etc) but the DRI drivers are the modern ones.

Imroy July 6, 2005 14:27 (UTC)