# OpenGL 39 Hacker News commenters recommended OpenGL and 26 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Simple, cross-platform graphics API that still runs well everywhere and suits learning, though critics call it old, messy and inconsistent across drivers. ## Why people recommend it - Runs across all major platforms (5 comments): "seems to work portably across the NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, Mesa, Apple drivers and more vendors I've tried first-hand" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50266853)) "it's cross-platform, old (which is good and bad at the same time) and is the easiest of them all." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48759663)) "OpenGL still exists, runs and works fine on the two platforms that matter." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46013377)) - Simple entry point for learning (4 comments): "You want to start with OpenGL because the API is organized roughly around these high level concepts." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49026250)) "OpenGL is still the simplest way to start learning hardware accelerated rendering" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49029599)) "OpenGL is a fantastic way to introduce people to basic graphics programming." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46014204)) - Performance good enough for many uses (4 comments): "It's so much easier than Vulkan or writing shaders and the performance is more than good enough for a lot of applications." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49023979)) "you can render the entire level in OpenGL with just zbuffer and alpha tested sprites and it'll run perfectly fine" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48460489)) "As a non-AAA developer, I can't imagine anything else I'd really need." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46011699)) - Still works well today (4 comments): "OpenGL still exists, runs and works fine on the two platforms that matter." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46013377)) "OpenGL is not obsolete and is totally fine for many use cases." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49023956)) "I've had very good results with it despite it being "old"." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49024671)) ## What people warn about - Confusing, messy, badly designed API (3 comments): "it is an incredibly confusing and (in many places) just plain badly designed API" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49024048)) "The problem with OpenGL is that it is a complete mess compared to the D3D APIs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46137079)) "I definitely prefer the D3D model instead of the extension soup of GL or Vulkan." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50261745)) - Global state and extension sprawl (3 comments): "The whole idea of granular and indipendent extensions is pretty stupid across GL, Vulkan and Wayland." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47487228)) "Going entirely back to the granular GL-style state soup would have significant 'usability problems'." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46300645)) "requires a global state. This often leads to bad design, is miserable to multi-thread" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49024563)) - Inconsistent drivers and buggy behavior (3 comments): "Godot had to implement a DirectX backend, when they only originally planned Khronos APIs, due to driver support issues" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50270620)) "A big complaint I hear about OpenGL is that it has inconsistent behavior across drivers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46968516)) "In real life there’s lots of bugs around and difficult to read error messages." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50257603)) - Dated design needs emulation workarounds (2 comments): "the way a buffer clamps or overflows compared to the PS2 may be hardcoded in OpenGL 2.1 meaning you have to write emulation" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50061623)) "Why would you want to learn an API for graphics cards from the 90s instead of an API for the graphics card from the 2010s?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49026583)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Vulkan](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vulkan.md): 99 recommend - [WebGPU](https://hackerapproved.com/p/webgpu.md): 35 recommend - [Metal](https://hackerapproved.com/p/metal.md): 27 recommend - [DirectX](https://hackerapproved.com/p/directx.md): 25 recommend - [SDL_GPU](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sdl-gpu.md): 7 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "OpenGL", https://hackerapproved.com/p/opengl/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).