WebGL around the net, 23 August 2012

luriel · on Sept 2, 2012

WebGL is not just a security disaster waiting to happen, it is also badly fragmenting the web.

I run Linux on a fairly recent Thinkpad, with the latest version of Chrome WebGL is not supported on this system (for who knows what reason).

Any website that uses WebGL is inaccessible for a huge variety of hardware/software configurations.

Even Flash had better cross-platform/browser support. (And I'm really happy that Flash is dying, because it was a nightmare.)

Autious · on Sept 2, 2012

I've often heard that WebGL is very well a large security issue, and i've read about some rather frightening examples that could easily be extended to do severe damage.

But i don't understand how it could be fragmenting the Web in any way worse than what has been before and what might come as an alternative.

It's a fun addition, enabling hardware rendering on platform widely used, in a potentially simple way for the end user.

On top of that it's surprisingly open, enabling it to be implemented on almost any machine or OS.

It's still in its infancy and works like shit, with a bunch of browsers either having experimental, incomplete or a complete lack of an implementation (and a lack of interest thereof).

Still, i wouldn't want to have something like this go any other way.

I'm sincere in my question, because i don't want to fuck around or fight with people, i'm merely curious. How would you prefer it to be? Even if it's just a vague ideal?

erichocean · on Sept 2, 2012

the latest version of Chrome WebGL is not supported on this system

That's pretty surprising, since Chrome has a software WebGL fallback mechanism built-in.

Are you sure it's not supported? Perhaps you just need to enable it in about:flags?

luriel · on Sept 2, 2012

I'm pretty sure that I have a stock Chrome installed from Google's own servers, last updated a few days ago, and that when I go to get.webgl.org I get:

"Hmm. While your browser seems to support WebGL, it is disabled or unavailable. If possible, please ensure that you are running the latest drivers for your video card."

I run the latest kernel with the latest X11 in Debian SID. If that is not enough, I'm not going to force-enable a feature that is already dangerous in its supposedly optimal setup. If Chrome can't figure out how to do WebGL on this system, then WebGL could just as well not exist.

Sorry if I'm bitter, but this whole thing really annoys me. What if I was running OpenBSD on this box instead of Linux? Will that ever be supported? No.

WebGL is a huge step back for the "open web".