Editing GLX (section)

==History==
[[Silicon Graphics]] developed GLX as part of their effort to support OpenGL in the [[X Window System]]. In 1999 SGI released GLX under an [[open-source license]],<ref>{{cite web
| title=OpenGL Sample Implementation
| url=http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ogl-sample/
| author=Jon Leech
| date=2012
| publisher=[[Silicon Graphics International]]
| access-date=2017-04-11
| archive-date=2011-05-14
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514113623/http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ogl-sample/
| url-status=dead
}}</ref> letting it be incorporated in [[XFree86]] source code version 4.0 in 2000. From there, the code was inherited by the forked [[X.Org Server|X.Org Foundation]] version of the X Window System X11R6.7.0. On September 19, 2008, SGI created a new SGI FreeB License Version 2.0, which "now mirrors the free X11 license used by X.Org" and "meets the free and open source software community's widely accepted definition of 'free'".<ref>{{cite web
| url=http://www.sgi.com/company_info/newsroom/press_releases/2008/september/opengl.html
| title=SGI Further Opens Its OpenGL Contributions
| date=2008-09-19
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120211122230/http://www.sgi.com/company_info/newsroom/press_releases/2008/september/opengl.html
| archive-date=2012-02-11
| url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2009 the [[Free Software Foundation]] endorsed the SGI Free License B to be a [[free-software license]], and GLX to be an important [[free-software]] graphics project.<ref>{{cite web
| url=https://www.fsf.org/news/thank-you-sgi
| title=Thank you SGI, for freeing the GNU/Linux 3D desktop!
| first=Matt
| last=Lee
| date=2008-09-19
| publisher=[[Free Software Foundation]]
| access-date=2017-04-11}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
| url=https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/2009-01-xorg-glx
| title=3D graphics are 100% free software
| author=brett
| date=2009-01-13
| publisher=Free Software Foundation
| access-date=2017-04-11}}</ref> As of 2011, GLX has reached version 1.4.

The first internal implementation of GLX API, called GLcore,<ref>{{cite web
| url=https://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/GLcore/
| title=DRI – GLcore
| date=2016-07-20
| publisher=[[freedesktop.org]]
| access-date=2017-04-11}}</ref> loaded a version of the software renderer of [[Mesa (computer graphics)|Mesa]] inside the X server and rendered the OpenGL commands in a window or pixmap. With the development of [[Direct Rendering Infrastructure|DRI]], the ability to use hardware accelerated OpenGL through direct contexts was added (primarily used by [[videogame]]s). In 2006, the popularization of the nested [[Xgl]] X server and [[Compiz]] [[compositing window manager]] lead to the development of Accelerated Indirect GLX ([[AIGLX]]). AIGLX brings hardware acceleration to the GLX (indirect context) applications by loading the Mesa DRI driver inside the X server. This method enables the sharing of GL objects between X clients using indirect contexts (they all are in the same address space in the X server) and also between a X client and the compositing window manager, thus accelerating composition. In 2008 the binding in GLcore to the Mesa software renderer was rewritten as a DRI interface module, called <code>swrast_dri.so</code>, improving the coupling of Mesa and the X server. Also in the year 2008 the new DRI2 was introduced to replace DRI, and with it a new model based in the [[Kernel mode-setting]]. In 2011, the [[Glamor (software)|Glamor]] project started, aiming to add a generic hardware-accelerated 2D X driver based in OpenGL. In 2013 Adam Jackson did a major rewrite of GLX code to consolidate the diverse paths from Glamor, indirect rendering, ... to one unique path to OpenGL's library libGL.<ref>{{cite web
| url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fr7pzoNSbQ
 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/4Fr7pzoNSbQ |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live| title=Rewriting GLX To Rewrite X
| last=Jackson
| first=Adam
| date=2014-02-04
| publisher=[[Linux.conf.au]]
| access-date=2017-04-11}}{{cbignore}}</ref> 

<gallery mode=packed heights=150px style="text-align:left">
File:Linux graphics drivers 2D.svg|2D drivers inside of the [[display server|X server]]
File:Linux graphics drivers Utah GLX.svg|Indirect rendering over GLX, using [[Utah GLX]]
File:Linux graphics drivers DRI early.svg|Early [[Direct Rendering Infrastructure]]
File:Linux graphics drivers DRI current.svg|Finally all access goes through the [[Direct Rendering Manager]]
File:Linux graphics drivers DRI Wayland.svg|In Linux kernel 3.12 ''render nodes'' were merged and the [[Kernel mode-setting|KMS]] was split off. [[Wayland (display server protocol)|Wayland]] implements direct rendering over [[EGL (API)|EGL]]
</gallery>