[Coco] Another drive question

[Roger Taylor]

At 10:19 PM 12/7/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>In a message dated 12/7/03 6:02:26 PM Eastern Standard Time, wb8tyw at qsl.net
>writes:
>
> > There is a native version of MESS for LINUX.  The Micrsoft Windows
> >  version is a port of the LINUX version using the Cygwin LINUX support
> >  utilities and libraries.
>
>Someone reported that Linux MESS is very slow.  But from what you say, the
>Windows should be even slower!  Maybe it's just that Windows typically is 
>run on
>newer, faster PCs, so folks don't notice.

Windows uses the "Direct..." technology, as in DirectX, Direct3D, etc. for 
acceleration.  If a monitor or video card also supports this technology, 
then everything works as a whole to boost performance 
tremendously.  Sometimes, it's hard to believe.

I have a 2-monitor system.  The flat panel is driven by a high-end video 
card, while the other monitor is driven by a basic video card.  If  I drag 
a large window from the flat panel screen across to the other monitor, I 
immediately start to see a major difference in things.

When you drag a window around in Linux, you can see it being redrawn.  The 
larger the window, the more sluggish things get.  The same goes for things 
like graphics editors and even word processors.  If you can see a scrolling 
action throw a wave down your screen, so to speak, then there's apparently 
no acceleration going on.

Everything combined, from system speed/memory, to video card capabilities, 
to the DirectX technology, works as a whole.
I can move over to Linux on this same system and dragging windows around is 
almost painful to do.  Again, same exact hardware.

This is where Bill Gates has been strong since the beginning, by 
convincing/pursuading/forcing hardware manufacturers to meet them 
halfway.  In the end, a zillion modern hardware devices will require the 
Windows operating system.

Linux's next move should be to steal the DirectX technology and figure out 
how to talk to these video cards using the built-in DirectX support.  Even 
the oldest of cards have some support for it.  If Linux already does this, 
then I would be surprised since it's a proprietary system.