If you work with Unix and Linux OpenGL applications, you should already be familiar with VirtualGL. It is an open-source software package that redirects 3D rendering commands from the applications mentioned above to a GPU. All of this is in a dedicated server, sending rendered output to a (thin) client elsewhere on the network. It’s advantageous, don’t you agree?
However, the development of this solution may be at risk. According to Darrell R. Commander, the main developer and maintainer of the VirtualGL Project, his work as an independent open-source developer generates high costs but needs more sponsorship.
According to him, since 2009, almost all the major features implemented in VirtualGL were realized because a company or organization needed it badly enough to finally pay for the work. “The value proposition for potential project sponsors is that by using VirtualGL, they are already receiving the benefit of decades of work. It would likely cost US$ millions to build such a project from scratch, but organizations can pay US$ hundreds or US$ thousands to sponsor the development of a specific feature or to fix what they need,” he explains.
Even though the software is provided free of charge, it isn’t free to develop. Therefore, as a VirtualGL promoter and sponsor, Cendio ThinLinc invites all companies that use this solution to make donations or to become a sponsor. In this way, the development of this important tool will once again be viable, contributing to the daily work of thousands of users.
We believe that, like ThinLinc, other Open Source tools can and deserve to become even more sustainable. By being profitable, developers gain the strength to invest in producing new technologies, contributing with increasingly innovative solutions, as VirtualGL is already doing. So, we invite you and your company to make your donation and also make it an advantageous business.
If you want to know more about VirtualGL’s work, check out the interview given by Darrell click here and visit virtualgl.org.