> no 3D GPU Do you like Windows? Because Direct2D, the 2D-renderer of Windows for Desktops / 2D applications, is built on top of DirectX. That means you need

> no 3D GPU Do you like Windows? Because Direct2D, the 2D-renderer of Windows for Desktops / 2D applications, is built on top of DirectX. That means you need a 3D GPU to run Windows 7, let alone Win8, Win10, or Win11. ------ Using 3D GPU commands, in particular a 2D rectangle as the basis of texture-mapping (with textures being uploaded to "GPU-memory"), is the standard methodology today. Old-school 2D API (GDI) based off of bit-blitting just isn't how computers work anymore. INT 10H services (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INT_10H https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INT_10H) are long, long, long dead. IIRC, GDI is provided on modern Windows in terms of Direct2D emulation layer (ie: GDI is built on top of Direct2D, which is built on top of DirectX 3D commands). ------- This makes sense, because "pixel fill" / pixel-shaders are far more flexible than the ol' Bitblt. Even if you were to only be doing 2D code, modern GPU effects (ex: alpha-transparency, fades, etc. etc.) are best built out of pixel-effects and pixel-shaders. I admit to being ignorant to Linux graphics drivers, but I'd expect the same thing. Modern hardware is built out of the 3D API / paradigm. "Running code" on a remote GPU/SIMD-cluster is far more efficient than having those effects calculated on the CPU (ex: alpha-transparency, anti-aliasing, painter's algorithm, z-depth, etc. etc.)