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To be fair, they've been saying IE9 requires D2D, which provides both hardware and software rendering. All he's saying here is that you can ask IE9 to use D2D'

by jfager 16y ago

To be fair, they've been saying IE9 requires D2D, which provides both hardware and software rendering. All he's saying here is that you can ask IE9 to use D2D's software rendering if your VM is having problems with hardware rendering. This is not the same as admitting they don't really need D2D.

patrickaljord 16y ago
> This is not the same as admitting they don't really need D2D. It is admitting they don't need hardware acceleration, which is what they advertise.
- jfager 16y ago
  Given that we've had web browsers since 1992, and that they've only recently started supporting hardware acceleration, that doesn't seem like something that needs to be "admitted". They advertise it because when and if it works for you, it is a feature. I'm not pro-MS here, I promise. But they suck hard enough on real issues that it's stupid to go after them for pretend ones. If you're going to slag them on this, slag them for deciding to depend on a Vista+ api. Don't pretend they're accidentally revealing their own lies when they aren't.
- djacobs 16y ago
  You're right, it's what they advertise officially, but now that we're talking to engineers, we get the gritty details, a story I accept: D2D is a layer that doesn't exist in Windows XP. Where it does exist (Vista and 7), you can use it to switch between hardware- and software-accelerated rendering. Where it does not exist, they would have to rewrite entire libraries or APIs to interact with the XP kernel. According to the answerer, rewriting these libraries would amount to rewriting IE9 as IE8 with a GUI upgrade. (That the graphics rendering sits inside the kernel is another problem, but not likely one these guys can fix.)
  - noibl 16y ago
    > According to the answerer, rewriting these libraries would amount to rewriting IE9 as IE8 with a GUI upgrade. I couldn't find this in the discussion. It also seems unlikely given how tangential D2D is to most of the interesting features in IE9.
    - djacobs 16y ago
      Self-correction: the "IE8 with a new GUI" comment wasn't made by the engineer. Here's the discussion: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/dkk3l/iama_we_are_members_of_the_ie9_product_team_here/c10vxly http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/dkk3l/iama_we_are_memb...

by jfager 16y ago

patrickaljord 16y ago

> This is not the same as admitting they don't really need D2D. It is admitting they don't need hardware acceleration, which is what they advertise.

jfager 16y ago
Given that we've had web browsers since 1992, and that they've only recently started supporting hardware acceleration, that doesn't seem like something that needs to be "admitted". They advertise it because when and if it works for you, it is a feature. I'm not pro-MS here, I promise. But they suck hard enough on real issues that it's stupid to go after them for pretend ones. If you're going to slag them on this, slag them for deciding to depend on a Vista+ api. Don't pretend they're accidentally revealing their own lies when they aren't.
djacobs 16y ago
You're right, it's what they advertise officially, but now that we're talking to engineers, we get the gritty details, a story I accept: D2D is a layer that doesn't exist in Windows XP. Where it does exist (Vista and 7), you can use it to switch between hardware- and software-accelerated rendering. Where it does not exist, they would have to rewrite entire libraries or APIs to interact with the XP kernel. According to the answerer, rewriting these libraries would amount to rewriting IE9 as IE8 with a GUI upgrade. (That the graphics rendering sits inside the kernel is another problem, but not likely one these guys can fix.)
- noibl 16y ago
  > According to the answerer, rewriting these libraries would amount to rewriting IE9 as IE8 with a GUI upgrade. I couldn't find this in the discussion. It also seems unlikely given how tangential D2D is to most of the interesting features in IE9.
  - djacobs 16y ago
    Self-correction: the "IE8 with a new GUI" comment wasn't made by the engineer. Here's the discussion: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/dkk3l/iama_we_are_members_of_the_ie9_product_team_here/c10vxly http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/dkk3l/iama_we_are_memb...