Cracking Windows Open: Porting RADV to Win32(www.collabora.com)

36 pointsby zdw4 hours ago1 comment

userbinator2 hours ago
Developing our own KMD is not really an option
Why not? Fully open-source Windows GPU drivers would be great. Incidentally, this sort of "glue code" is probably something LLM assistance could help greatly with much of the grunt work.
(E.g. there is already a generic framebuffer driver for Win3x/9x: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47646363 but one of the ideas I have --- which anyone else with the time is more than welcome to attempt --- is to port the existing open-source Linux drivers for AMD/NVIDIA/Intel to early Windows versions that never even had closed-source drivers available, giving them full 2D/3D acceleration. Theoretically, something as crazy as CUDA on Windows 95 is possible, and perhaps some vibecoding can turn that into reality. After all, as I write this comment, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49089814 is on the main page.)
- ZiiSan hour ago
  For Windows 3x/9x the common term was VxD, KMD strongly implies an NT derived OS.
  - pjmlpan hour ago
    Not only that, Windows NT driver model already changed at least twice since Windows XP, on Vista and Windows 10.
- pjmlpan hour ago
  Certainly OpenGL and DirectX acceleration was a thing in Windows 9x, kind of missing the point.
- LoganDarkan hour ago
  You can't really develop a kernel-mode driver nowadays without being an incredibly large OEM. Otherwise, you won't be accepted by any anti-cheat.
  - Maakuthan hour ago
    An anti-cheat app would probably be quite surprised to find it's running on Windows 95 anyway.
  - ChocolateGodan hour ago
    Wireguard...
    grim_io35 minutes ago
    Wireguard is blessed by Microsoft, who sign their drivers.