[ut2003io] Microsoft = Epic's new publisher?

[David Krider]

On Wed, 2003-09-17 at 13:36, Ian Hastie wrote:
> Microsoft have already stated they wish to dump OpenGL, and nearly did with MS 
> WinXP.  It seems to me that they intend to leverage their effective PC games 
> monopoly to coerce developers into an MS DirectX lock in.  That's an attempt  
> to exclude all the non-MS platforms.  Of course the real target is the other 
> consoles, so any incidental impact on Linux is a bonus for them.

As much as I hate to say it, the high-end CAD market price, performance,
and features matrix leans toward a Windows solution. The Unix
workstation vendors have been completely unable to lower their prices to
match the competition from high-end Xeons and P4's, especially when you
factor in that those workers need tight integration with what is likely
to be a Windows-centric network. We use almost all of the big CAD/FEA
packages here. Some have Linux front-ends, the others are working on it.
(Every one with a two-tier architecture already has a Linux back end for
computational clusters.)

I said all of that to say this: Microsoft will have to continue to
support OpenGL in order to keep the CAD/CAM/FEA market, which is a
growth market for them right now. So don't worry about that. What is
more worrisome is whether or not the hardware makers (nVidia and ATI)
will continue to create drivers that support the OpenGL spec with good
performance. Matrox found out it was too hard, and basically gave up. On
the other hand, I have good hope for both, because they keep making new
cards specifically tailored for this market, and the technology trickles
down.

dk