Well there was once a hardware accelerated API for 2D drawing on Windows (DirectDraw), but it died in Windows Vista when desktop composition was added in. It w

Well there was once a hardware accelerated API for 2D drawing on Windows (DirectDraw), but it died in Windows Vista when desktop composition was added in. It was still supported for application use, but it was just emulating it. But if there was an API for 2D acceleration that was actually supported (and could be used simultaneously with desktop composition), then it could be added in to something like SDL then suddenly applications would support it.