I’ve tried to run some shader samples on an old box with the GL extensions below. Notice how there is no GL_ARB_shader_objects advertised in the list. Consequently GLEW provides a NULL pointer to glCreateShaderObjectARB() and the samples crash, but games utilizing shaders (enemy-territory, q3, …) work just fine. Is there another way to get to glCreateShaderObjectARB()?
OpenGL vendor string: Tungsten Graphics, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI R200 (RV280 5964) 20090101 AGP 8x x86/MMX+/3DNow!+/SSE TCL
OpenGL version string: 1.3 Mesa 7.8.1
OpenGL extensions:
GL_ARB_draw_buffers, GL_ARB_imaging, GL_ARB_multisample,
GL_ARB_multitexture, GL_ARB_point_parameters, GL_ARB_point_sprite,
GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp, GL_ARB_texture_compression,
GL_ARB_texture_cube_map, GL_ARB_texture_env_add,
GL_ARB_texture_env_combine, GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar,
GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3, GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat,
GL_ARB_texture_rectangle, GL_ARB_transpose_matrix,
GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object, GL_ARB_vertex_program, GL_ARB_window_pos,
GL_EXT_abgr, GL_EXT_bgra, GL_EXT_blend_color,
GL_EXT_blend_equation_separate, GL_EXT_blend_func_separate,
GL_EXT_blend_logic_op, GL_EXT_blend_minmax, GL_EXT_blend_subtract,
GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array, GL_EXT_convolution, GL_EXT_copy_texture,
GL_EXT_draw_range_elements, GL_EXT_fog_coord, GL_EXT_histogram,
GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays, GL_EXT_packed_depth_stencil,
GL_EXT_packed_pixels, GL_EXT_point_parameters, GL_EXT_polygon_offset,
GL_EXT_rescale_normal, GL_EXT_secondary_color,
GL_EXT_separate_specular_color, GL_EXT_stencil_wrap, GL_EXT_subtexture,
GL_EXT_texture, GL_EXT_texture3D, GL_EXT_texture_cube_map,
GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp, GL_EXT_texture_env_add,
GL_EXT_texture_env_combine, GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3,
GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic, GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias,
GL_EXT_texture_mirror_clamp, GL_EXT_texture_object,
GL_EXT_texture_rectangle, GL_EXT_vertex_array, GL_APPLE_packed_pixels,
GL_ATI_blend_equation_separate, GL_ATI_texture_env_combine3,
GL_ATI_texture_mirror_once, GL_ATI_fragment_shader,
GL_IBM_multimode_draw_arrays, GL_IBM_rasterpos_clip,
GL_IBM_texture_mirrored_repeat, GL_INGR_blend_func_separate,
GL_MESA_pack_invert, GL_MESA_ycbcr_texture, GL_MESA_window_pos,
GL_NV_blend_square, GL_NV_light_max_exponent, GL_NV_packed_depth_stencil,
GL_NV_texture_rectangle, GL_NV_texgen_reflection, GL_OES_read_format,
GL_SGI_color_matrix, GL_SGI_color_table, GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap,
GL_SGIS_texture_border_clamp, GL_SGIS_texture_edge_clamp,
GL_SGIS_texture_lod, GL_SUN_multi_draw_arrays