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Linux graphics, why sharing code with Windows isn't always a win.

Submitted by Rianne Schestowitz on Wednesday 11th of November 2020 11:28:48 PM Filed under
Graphics/Benchmarks
Microsoft

A recent article on phoronix has some commentary about sharing code between Windows and Linux, and how this seems to be a metric that Intel likes.

I'd like to explore this idea a bit and explain why I believe it's bad for Linux based distros and our open source development models in the graphics area.

tl;dr there is a big difference between open source released and open source developed projects in terms of sustainability and community.

The Linux graphics stack from a distro vendor point of view is made up of two main projects, the Linux kernel and Mesa userspace. These two projects are developed in the open with completely open source vendor agnostic practices. There is no vendor controlling either project and both projects have a goal of try to maximise shared code and shared processes/coding standards across drivers from all vendors.

This cross-vendor synergy is very important to the functioning ecosystem that is the Linux graphics stack. The stack also relies in some places on the LLVM project, but again LLVM upstream is vendor agnostic and open source developed.

The value to distros is they have central places to pick up driver stacks with good release cycles and a minimal number of places they have to deal with to interact with those communities. Now usually hardware vendors don't see the value in the external communities as much as Linux distros do. From a hardware vendor internal point of view they see more benefit in creating a single stack shared between their Windows and Linux to maximise their return on investment, or make their orgchart prettier or produce less powerpoints about why their orgchart isn't optimal.

A shared Windows/Linux stack as such is a thing the vendors want more for their own reasons than for the benefit of the Linux community.

Why is it a bad idea?

I'll start by saying it's not always a bad idea. In theory it might be possible to produce such a stack with the benefits of open source development model, however most vendors seem to fail at this. They see open source as a release model, they develop internally and shovel the results over the fence into a github repo every X weeks after a bunch of cycles. They build products containing these open source pieces, but they never expend the time building projects or communities around them.

[...]

A warning then to anyone wishing for more vendor code sharing between OSes it generally doesn't end with Linux being better off, it ends up with Linux being more fragmented, harder to support and in the long run unsustainable.

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Context to this

Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Wednesday 11th of November 2020 11:30:22 PM.
  • Intel's Graphics Driver Now Sharing ~60% Codebase Between Windows/Linux, 90~100% The Performance

    Intel today is announcing their Server GPU for the data center based on their Xe-LP microarchitecture with an initial focus on high-density, low-latency Android cloud gaming and media streaming. For as exciting as the Intel Server GPU is, some exciting Intel Linux graphics driver details were also disclosed.

    [...]

    Before getting to the exciting Linux bits, Intel also is announcing today that oneAPI Gold will be out in December and they are bringing the Intel Implicit SPMD Program Compiler (ISPC) to run on top of oneAPI Level Zero.

Airlie: "Why Sharing Code With Windows Isn't Always A Win"

Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Thursday 12th of November 2020 03:24:27 AM.

  • Airlie: "Why Sharing Code With Windows Isn't Always A Win"

    Following the news today of Intel sharing ~60% of their GPU driver code-base between Windows and Linux and working to bring the Intel Graphics Compiler (IGC) to Mesa in 2021, not everyone is enthusiastic about those prospects.

    David Airlie at Red Hat serves as the DRM co-maintainer for the Linux kernel, contributes significantly to Mesa particularly for Lavapipe/LLVMpipe/Clover, and also is the co-founder of the open-source Radeon Vulkan "RADV" driver as well as being involved in the early days of the open-source AMD driver work, among other open-source/Linux accomplishments over the years. Airlie penned a blog post today in response to Intel's news of the increased Windows/Linux code sharing and IGC likely coming to Mesa.

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