From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI, UNPARSEABLE_RELAY autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 12633 invoked from network); 26 Feb 2023 15:50:57 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (50.116.15.146) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 26 Feb 2023 15:50:57 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F268A43272; Mon, 27 Feb 2023 01:50:51 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mail-wr1-f44.google.com (mail-wr1-f44.google.com [209.85.221.44]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id C2BA643132 for ; Mon, 27 Feb 2023 01:50:37 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mail-wr1-f44.google.com with SMTP id bt28so3806241wrb.8 for ; Sun, 26 Feb 2023 07:50:37 -0800 (PST) X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20210112; h=mime-version:user-agent:message-id:in-reply-to:date:references :subject:cc:to:from:x-gm-message-state:from:to:cc:subject:date :message-id:reply-to; bh=gjHeQcSgvkdC3wNWr+nxmPhyqggtzPKsH27OF9RbVKI=; b=R18tikXvLaUPp9rTVq7XAgVBEBAMg2+duTdXYjnz+de1ncHQjyfFXtAlI/kwg3kH2x LErvfgzk+nPDI7L/57PinEdBdHJEjjuQf6JAEEKcLcGLrIPL14m0bc60Ws5avlHqD2jh jkpf9LKQhqzYqc0/Obq5j5pOkOry9ZRwUMXhXsRtBvv6CL8otKc3w/SxtqGpEK4A11/q cTICbj4qx2J2PLKzcO0Nsq+yfNa8ogbWVd5LuUI+jDfiEoAYpY87MiEEQhw663D1I96t NlqUess3unecJIOGQPdFLzeEpS0q9s7zvywGFEj9UqQKs/SP6xgCQMctNTN4jPsokp9S i2nQ== X-Gm-Message-State: AO0yUKXxNGR6u3VmzC5qqqJ5LrvLx5O9KeAgV3Juoj1+LAwaA20ZlgzP GPCABR8u1djfyvm2n1208LBKfQELPGpnCA== X-Google-Smtp-Source: AK7set8kFX4KdjvBIPZ1TTUzrUom7JsXyF3hejyZHVKbucofBFFFGb3ekiHUI0oVsE6wA0m9kBHBdA== X-Received: by 2002:adf:dd4e:0:b0:2c7:148c:b054 with SMTP id u14-20020adfdd4e000000b002c7148cb054mr10683515wrm.29.1677426635833; Sun, 26 Feb 2023 07:50:35 -0800 (PST) Received: from rhea.home.vuxu.org ([2001:4ca0:0:f235:1e1b:b5ff:fe8a:9003]) by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id q5-20020adff505000000b002c70a0e2cd0sm4779761wro.101.2023.02.26.07.50.35 (version=TLS1_3 cipher=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 bits=256/256); Sun, 26 Feb 2023 07:50:35 -0800 (PST) Received: from localhost (rhea.home.vuxu.org [local]) by rhea.home.vuxu.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTPA id d1e8cba2; Sun, 26 Feb 2023 15:50:34 +0000 (UTC) From: Leah Neukirchen To: Warner Losh References: <58626A0B-EF9C-4920-8E20-CE0C4210BA6A@planet.nl> Date: Sun, 26 Feb 2023 16:50:34 +0100 In-Reply-To: (Warner Losh's message of "Sat, 25 Feb 2023 17:39:13 -0700") Message-ID: <878rgks9x1.fsf@vuxu.org> User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/28.2 (gnu/linux) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Message-ID-Hash: XLYP6F7V42QRUO7LIYX4JXFQLTSAFBKA X-Message-ID-Hash: XLYP6F7V42QRUO7LIYX4JXFQLTSAFBKA X-MailFrom: chneukirchen@gmail.com X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header CC: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [TUHS] Re: Early GUI on Linux List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: Warner Losh writes: > - was there any discussion of alternatives to X? >> > > Discussions yes. But not much more than talk. > > There were vgalib apps that ran graphics on the console, but I never used > them. I have some first hand experience with svgalib programs around 1999. Back then I didn't have enough disk space to install X11 and TeX at the same time, so I mostly worked on the 80x25 console and used dvisvga as a previewer, which ran MetaFont in the background and then rendered a quite readable preview of your DVI file. I also remember using zgv, an image display program that used svgalib. The fractal renderer XaoS also could do svgalib. IIRC, my screen could only display 1024x768, not 1280x1024. AFAIU, svgalib directly poked the graphics card memory on x86, so all programs using it had to be SUID to allow this. There was no kernel-provided framebuffer, this came a bit later (2.1.109 says Wikipedia; I used kernel 2.0.36 back then), but by then I had switched to X11 already. hth, -- Leah Neukirchen https://leahneukirchen.org/