The discussion on the forum is interesting, especially this post:

http://www.opengl.org/discussion_boards/showthread.php/18229...

(However, it's incorrect regarding patents, as stated later.)

Not really, as I can understand from the whole discussion Mesa will need to join Khronos if they ever want to fully implement OpenGL 4.4.

NVidia not playing well with others, trying to make it difficult for other vendors to implement supposedly standardised features. News at 11 ;)

Especially welcome are DirectX-porting helpers. Other changes are performance tuning, as far as I have seen.

finally time to get the new red book... grumble

That is why nowadays I only buy technical books in digital format, unless they are only available in dead tree format.

The technology to save trees is here, so no need to keep killing them for new versions.

I don't think there is going to be a redbook for 4.4, seeing as the last edition (for 4.3) was published last April...

That one probably took a lot longer as it was a complete rewrite to deal with the core profile. 4.3->4.4 would only have to add the 4.4 stuff in.

4.4 doesn't seem to be a major change. Only adding some buffer stuff, DX10 compatibility and mega-texturing.

They probably wont put out another edition just for 4.4. They didn't for 3.3 and after all the complaints the 7th edition received, I doubt they'll put out another insignificant update.

Why miss the chance to milk developers for another $59.99?

Longing for autoupdated e-books?