Re: fallback mode vs llvmpipe rendering

[Olav Vitters <olav vitters nl>]

On Mon, Jun 25, 2012 at 11:05:43AM +0200, Vincent Untz wrote:
> But there's an interest for going in other directions, and I don't want
> to block those motivated people if we don't need gnome-panel anymore for
> our "official" GNOME releases, which means if we don't need the fallback
> mode anymore. And now that llvmpipe rendering has been available for a
> few months, I wonder if we still need (or want) to keep the fallback
> session.

What kind of other direction? It is fallback because you need it for
some hardware.

If llvmpipe is good enough (it only works on Fedora atm AFAIK), then we
don't need fallback mode anymore. FWIW, I'd like to have that llvmpipe
working on Mageia.

Some people use fallback mode because it can be made to look like
GNOME 2. Why not, all the better to them.

However, if all the compatibility stuff is removed, is having just
gnome-panel + metacity realistic?

It seems that more and more stuff moves into gnome-shell (authentication
dialogs, etc). As soon as the maintenance of gnome-panel + metacity is
transferred to an "you're on git.gnome.org, can do releases, but not
actively thought of by the rest".. then we might just be first inviting
people to contribute, but from then onwards making their lives
difficult. It makes sense that everyone drops support for fallback
mode... and IIRC, such support is even in gnome-control-center.

Wondering: Would you still maintain or look after metacity+gnome-panel
if there is no fallback mode?

> Whatever we choose, this would at least clarify the current situation,
> where some people think llvmpipe is the new fallback, while others
> believe we still need to keep alive the fallback components.

As a non-developer, I only care what has been tested. Seems Ubuntu will
go this way with Unity IIRC. Fedora does with gnome-shell in Fedora 17,
barring some problems.

> Oh, and the first person that drives the thread in a "oh, I hate
> gnome-shell beause of XYZ, GNOME 2 was so much better" direction will
> suffer eternal shame!

I'll be reading along. ;)

-- 
Regards,
Olav