If anything proved that Linux could produce snappy graphics, it was Titanic. Strauss knew that Linux could handle heavy graphics as well, even when installed on regular PC hardware.
Movies are cool and a lot of fun, but it's incredibly high-stress.
In Strauss' mind, something clicked. That year he convinced 3dfx to let him port Glide to Linux. In 1998, after six years in the special-effects business, he retired. I looked at what was going on in Linux, and I could see that the market was going to develop. With hardly a look back, the programmer jumped into full-time graphics development on Linux, joining the company that had spearheaded development on the XFree86 graphics system for Linux, Precision Insight.