Ubuntu Developers Realize Need For Non-3D Desktop

[grok]

you have never done development... have you? you have a new SoC and the stable gl drivers are the LAST thing that works. for months or even over a year you have to do your work WITHOUT them...

not to mention you "port" linux to your phone - not use android... port ubuntu to it.. you end up WITHOUT gl drivers as the ones for android wont work with x11 and compositing.. so stuck again... or you are in a vm, and if the vm of choice doesn't provide a solid working virtual 3d accelerator PLUS drivers for your os.. stuck again.

you are VERY OFTEN left without usable 3d drivers, even if the hardware has it. they are by far the most comlpex bits of your os driver layer and are the last to work. that's reality.

You are VERY generous saying it's monthes or a year to get 3D support.
Sometimes, support never comes at all, even for hardware that has been sold for years and is still selling. Take an Atom with a PowerVR GPU, or a VIA CPU with VIA GPU in the chipset. There's near zero level of support for anything from the vendors, so the community rushes basic support for 2D operation (not being stuck with slow VESA 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024, with no way at all to get other resolutions running). Even then, mere video playback is a crapshoot (on VIA VX900, it's not really smooth for divx playback, an ATI rage pro would be much better).

Open source 3D drivers? That only realistically gets done for the big three (Intel, AMD and NV). Even then your particular generation has to have a decent driver and be well maintained. And if your driver sucks who knows what will happen to you, a crash, lack of power management, displaying black or grey rectangles, or maybe just 40% CPU usage for minimizing a windows.

[mike4]

most have accelerated OpenGL hence they should simply use Mate etc. as fallback. But what strikes me is that they put new users on a ugly and VERY SLOW desktop!

Either they make it as fast as KDE for gaming or discard it completely. Also they should add the possibilty to add more desktops at install with a description if it's
suitable for gaming etc.

Gnome 3 is very good but it could be faster for gaming.