Novell, who are championing Linux in the workplace, have unveiled plans to make several updates to the Linux graphics subsystem, which will have the effect of making it a more attractive OS for desktop users. Improvements will be made to X over OpenGL (Xgl), which will make images render faster and improve 3D graphics and video. The improvements will arrive before the coming of Aero - Microsoft's much touted new graphical user interface for Windows Vista.
The updated rendering technology will be offered as an option for Version 10 of Novell's Linux Desktop software, which is due out this summer. The code will be offered to the open-source community, [with] the updated Xgl to be incorporated into other Linux flavors, such as Red Hat or Ubuntu.