I'm trying to understand how this works. So there are 2 types of applications - X apps and OpenGL apps. X apps draw to the screen using Xlib but do OpenGL somehow bypass X completely and render directly to the GPU? How does it do that?
If both X and OpenGL are running - how does my computer know which one to render to the screen? Is there some priority level? While X is running, can I bypass it and draw over it? That seems to be what OpenGL apps are doing if I understand it correctly.
OpenGL apps do not "bypass X", they ask X to provide a surface, and draw on it. Then X decides how to project that surface to the screen. Sometimes, if the app has frozen, you can see the surface when moving the windows, as a bright green rectangle.
You could draw directly on the screen before. However, now we have compositing window managers which, in a sense, do it themselves. So, while the API to draw on screen is likely still available, the WM will simply overpaint your stuff, 60 times per second.
