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DirectFB is a software library for the GNU/Linux operating system that provides "hardware graphics acceleration, input device handling and abstraction, integrated windowing system with support for translucent windows and multiple display layers on top of the Linux Framebuffer Device." [http://www.directfb.org/]
The library allows developers to bypass the X Window System, which has been traditionally used to support graphics in UNIX-like operating systems. Proponents of DirectFB say this speeds up and simplifies graphic operations by allowing applications to talk directly to video hardware with a thin simple API. A criticism of this argument is that such a library only reimplements features that the X server already had, and does not necessarily carry any performance gain over an X server with high-performance drivers.
It is free software licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).
LinuxTV uses DirectFB.
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