Editing Linux framebuffer (section)

==Applications==

There are three applications of the Linux framebuffer:

* An implementation of text [[Linux console]] that doesn't use hardware [[text mode]] (useful when that mode is unavailable, or to overcome its restrictions on glyph size, number of code points, etc.). One popular aspect of this is the ability to have console show the [[Tux (mascot)|Tux]] logo at boot up.
* A graphic output method for a [[display server]], independent of [[video adapter]] hardware and its drivers.
* Graphic programs avoiding the [[computational overhead|overhead]] of the [[X Window System]].
Examples of the third application include Linux programs such as [[MPlayer]], [[links2]], [[NetSurf]], [[w3m]], fbff,<ref>[https://github.com/aligrudi/fbff/ fbff media player repository], [[GitHub]]</ref> fbida,<ref>[https://www.kraxel.org/blog/linux/fbida/ fbi/fbida image viewer homepage]</ref> and fim,<ref>[https://www.nongnu.org/fbi-improved/ FIM (Fbi IMproved) image viewer homepage]</ref> and libraries such as [[OpenGL Utility Toolkit|GLUT]], [[Simple DirectMedia Layer|SDL]] (version 1.2), [[GTK]], and [[Qt (software)|Qt]], which can all use the framebuffer directly.<ref>[https://github.com/caramelli/higfxback/wiki/Linux-Framebuffer HiGFXback (History of graphics backends) project with the Linux Framebuffer graphics backend], [[GitHub]]</ref> This use case is particularly popular in [[embedded system]]s.

The now defunct<ref>{{Cite web |title=DirectFB Is Back To Being Dormant |url=https://www.phoronix.com/news/DirectFB-2017-Dormant |access-date=2024-01-01 |website=www.phoronix.com |language=en}}</ref> [[DirectFB]] is another project aimed at providing a framework for hardware acceleration of the Linux framebuffer.

There was also a windowing system called FramebufferUI (fbui) implemented in kernel space that provided a basic two-dimensional windowing experience with very little memory use.<ref>[https://github.com/8l/fbui Framebuffer UI (fbui) in-kernel Linux windowing system], [[GitHub]]</ref>