Framebuffer vs DRM in Linux: A Deep Technical Exploration of Architecture, Rendering Paths, and Performance Implications








In the evolution of Linux graphics, few transitions have been as profound and far-reaching as the shift from the legacy framebuffer subsystem to the Direct Rendering Manager framework. This transition...
Out of Memory conditions represent one of the most critical failure modes in a Linux system, not because they occur frequently, but because when they do occur, the system is...
At first glance, OpenGL-ES and Vulkan appear to exist in the same problem space on Linux systems, both offering GPU-accelerated graphics and compute capabilities across desktops, embedded devices, mobile platforms,...
Wayland compositors on ARM and RISC-V platforms occupy a very different performance and tuning landscape compared to their x86 desktop counterparts. While the same protocol, libraries, and rendering APIs are...
The Wayland display protocol represents one of the most significant architectural shifts in the Linux graphics stack since the original adoption of X11. While Wayland itself is intentionally minimal, the...
Latency is one of the most unforgiving constraints in real-time embedded systems. Unlike throughput or raw computational performance, latency defines whether a system meets its fundamental functional requirements or fails...
Latency is the silent metric that defines how responsive a graphical system feels long before raw frame rate becomes noticeable. In Linux graphics stacks, compositor latency represents the cumulative delay...
Compositing in Wayland represents one of the most fundamental architectural shifts the Linux graphics stack has undergone since the introduction of hardware-accelerated desktops. Unlike Xorg, where compositing was retrofitted onto...
At a glance, OpenGL and OpenGL-ES appear to be siblings differentiated only by scale, with one targeting desktops and workstations and the other designed for embedded and mobile platforms. In...
The performance debate between Wayland and Xorg is not merely a discussion about which display server is newer or which one feels smoother on the desktop. It is fundamentally a...