Intel plans to change GPU development approach
It’s no secret that Intel’s GPU driver provides a richer experience on Windows than Linux, so it’s welcome news that they are planning to take a more shared-code approach with the two OSs. Hopefully, this will translate into better HWA CODEC support in Kodi/OpenELEC where there isn’t quite the level of coverage that there is in Windows.
Up to now Intel’s Windows and Linux graphics drivers have been isolated from one another with being developed by different teams at the company. The Intel Windows OpenGL driver has long exposed OpenGL 4.x support where as the Intel Linux driver is still at OpenGL 3.3 (but the next Mesa release in one month should place it at OpenGL 4.2) and there have been various other feature and performance differences between these drivers for the competing operating systems. Of course, understandably given the much greater marketshare, the Intel Windows driver has received more benefits. And any routine Phoronix reader should know how last year’s Skylake launch was a bit of a rocky road with the Linux graphics driver support at launch time… The latest restructuring target at Intel is for a consolidated graphics driver stack to hopefully yield better and more efficient support for both platforms.