"Evolution of GTK's Unified Renderers: A Glimpse into the Future"
GTK has merged new "unified" rendering code with a focus on Vulkan API support, encouraging Linux distributions to build with the Vulkan renderer. The NGL and Vulkan renderers, built from the same sources, offer improved anti-aliasing, fractional scaling support, arbitrary gradients, and broader DMA-BUF support. While not yet faster than the old OpenGL renderer, future improvements include HDR color handling, GPU path rendering, and off-the-main-thread rendering. The NGL renderer is now the default in GTK 4.13.6, with the option to revert to the old OpenGL renderer for "very old" hardware.