Slashdot Mirror

horst writes: "I found this proposal by Keith Packard at mosfet.org. a good article, very interesting." Although it's more than a month old, if you are interested in the state of X, how it got to be that way, and where it's likely to head next, this is essential reading. In fact, you'll practically have to read it to find out why Packard concludes that "[a] new rendering model, designed to solve specific performance and network transparency issues of these new toolkits, has the promise of significantly increasing the power of the X desktop environment."

A lot of folks have been submitting the news from Nvidia that they've released beta drivers for XFree86. They've got OpenGL acceleration - but are still in beta. You've been warned. *grin*

YAH00 writes: "The 4.0 release of xfree is now available!!! I'm downloading it from ftp.xfree86.org as I type!!! " I've played around with the preview releases, and 4.0 looks to be a much needed improvement over the 3.3.x tree, with xinerama ^[?] features and improved performance for many graphic chipsets.

intensity writes, "Wired has an interesting read on efforts to 'make Linux pretty.' I originally got into Linux because it gave me total control over what I could do with my desktop through the X Windowing system. That was in 1995, when setting up X was a chore in itself. Is it time to set down a standard GUI for Linux systems? " It's mostly yet another story about Eazel's Nautilis project (AKA the GNOME 2.0 Desktop)

John Fulmer writes, "The fourth and final beta of XFree86 3.9.x has been released and up on their ftp site. From the announcement: 'This snapshot version is 3.9.18. We are planning to release 4.0 in early March 2000.' You can download (source only) from here. "

John Fulmer writes, "The fourth and final beta of XFree86 3.9.x has been released and up on their ftp site. From the announcement: 'This snapshot version is 3.9.18. We are planning to release 4.0 in early March 2000.' You can download (source only) from here. "

John Fulmer writes, "The fourth and final beta of XFree86 3.9.x has been released and up on their ftp site. From the announcement: 'This snapshot version is 3.9.18. We are planning to release 4.0 in early March 2000.' You can download (source only) from here. "

franklamonica writes "David Dawes, one of the original founders of the XFree86 Project, and its President for the last seven years, has decided to join Precision Insight Inc." PI has been heavily involved in extending XF86 to include top notch 3d support, and releasing their code back into the XFree86 code base.

kornyone writes "Freshmeat listed XFree86 3.3.6 as being released, among new features: "Highlights of the new release include: support for the ATI Rage128. support for the ATI Rage Mobility, support for the SiS 540/630 and SiS 300, support for Silicon Motion Lynx chipsets, support for the Savage2000, support for the NVIDIA GeForce, support for the Intel i810 (not enabled by default as it needs a kernel module), and fixes to several drivers." "

a_little_bird informed that XFree86 will be getting the LinuxWorldExpo Community prize this coming February. That little coup will add another $25,000 to their coffers. Congrats, and we're waiting patiently for v4. *grin*

MartinG was one of many people who wrote with the news that XFree86 has released 3.9.17. It's availible on their ftp server and features some relatively minor changes since 3.9.16. Still leading up to the promised 4 release, but that should be happening in the near future.

Ansgar Philippsen writes "XIG has released a first version of their hardware accelerated OpenGL X-Server. They offer a gamers edition (full screen only) and a professional edition (all goodies included). They support a wide range of chipsets. I would be very curious to see some comments if anyone has tested this product, especially under non-gaming conditions, e.g. a scientific OpenGL app running in a window. Additionaly, a comparison to XFree's upcoming 4.0 version will be very interesting. Unfortunately, I could not find any details on their implementation. XFree and PrecisionInsight have released a great amount of detail on their DRI/GLX implementation, and it sure would be nice to see how XIG did it." Interesting points: This is of course not open source, and at $99 for the game version and $250 for the pro version, its not cheap, but it does support several cards that aren't supported under XF86 (like my Number 9 Rev 4 for example).

Belzecue writes " XFree86.org has been updated mentioning that xfree-4.0 has been pushed back 2 months to mid Q1-2000, but that the next snapshot release of the 4.0 preview series will be released before the end of the year. "

RareEYE was the first to point out the press release from ATI announcing their official support for Linux and endorsement of Open Source. As part of their support, they will be "...releasing 2D, 3D and multimedia programming specifications for its industry-leading RAGE graphics technology." ATI also mentions their current/past work with the XFree86 group, which they will be ramping up to an even higher level now.

DirkHohndel writes "The XFree86 Project has released XFree86-3.3.5. The release notes should be a good first place to start. It might take the mirrors a while to get updated, distribution specific packages for SuSE, Red Hat and Debian should be available at their web sites, soon. Dirk " Dirk was also kind enough to include a short list of importat features which can be viewed below.

• Support for S3 Savage4 and Savage3D. Limited to Linux/x86 at this point.
• Support for S3 Trio3D/2X.
• Support for DGux.
• Support for QNX.
• Fix bug in Mach64 server on Rage LT and Rage LT Pro.
• Fix SiS driver for 530 and 620.
• Fix the spurious underline problem on NVidia Riva TNT cards.
• Fix the PS/2 mouse problem with later Linux kernels.
• Misc updates and bugfixes in Rendition driver.
• Updates from SuSE and Red Hat, including more keyboards, PAM support, ARM and AXP fixes, security fixes.

DirkHohndel writes "The XFree86 Project has released XFree86-3.3.5. The release notes should be a good first place to start. It might take the mirrors a while to get updated, distribution specific packages for SuSE, Red Hat and Debian should be available at their web sites, soon. Dirk " Dirk was also kind enough to include a short list of importat features which can be viewed below.

• Support for S3 Savage4 and Savage3D. Limited to Linux/x86 at this point.
• Support for S3 Trio3D/2X.
• Support for DGux.
• Support for QNX.
• Fix bug in Mach64 server on Rage LT and Rage LT Pro.
• Fix SiS driver for 530 and 620.
• Fix the spurious underline problem on NVidia Riva TNT cards.
• Fix the PS/2 mouse problem with later Linux kernels.
• Misc updates and bugfixes in Rendition driver.
• Updates from SuSE and Red Hat, including more keyboards, PAM support, ARM and AXP fixes, security fixes.

DirkHohndel writes "The XFree86 Project has released XFree86-3.3.5. The release notes should be a good first place to start. It might take the mirrors a while to get updated, distribution specific packages for SuSE, Red Hat and Debian should be available at their web sites, soon. Dirk " Dirk was also kind enough to include a short list of importat features which can be viewed below.

• Support for S3 Savage4 and Savage3D. Limited to Linux/x86 at this point.
• Support for S3 Trio3D/2X.
• Support for DGux.
• Support for QNX.
• Fix bug in Mach64 server on Rage LT and Rage LT Pro.
• Fix SiS driver for 530 and 620.
• Fix the spurious underline problem on NVidia Riva TNT cards.
• Fix the PS/2 mouse problem with later Linux kernels.
• Misc updates and bugfixes in Rendition driver.
• Updates from SuSE and Red Hat, including more keyboards, PAM support, ARM and AXP fixes, security fixes.

bento writes "There is a new snapshot(3.9.16) of XFree86 available. It now supports nVidia, i740, 3dfx Banshee, and the Voodoo3. " You can all wipe the drool of your chins: its gonna be awhile before this morphs into XF86 v4.0, but its cool to see/touch and compile progress. Update: 08/31 10:32 by CT : here are the release notes if you crave more data.

bento writes "There is a new snapshot(3.9.16) of XFree86 available. It now supports nVidia, i740, 3dfx Banshee, and the Voodoo3. " You can all wipe the drool of your chins: its gonna be awhile before this morphs into XF86 v4.0, but its cool to see/touch and compile progress. Update: 08/31 10:32 by CT : here are the release notes if you crave more data.

Mandrake, AKA Geoff Harrison, is a heavy contributor to the enlightenment project and has also left his mark on Gnome, XFree86, and a bunch of other excellent free software projects. In real life, he works for VA Research as (surprise!) a software developer. Mandrake is, without question, one of the leading lights of the Linux and free software development communities. Check his Web site, and post any question(s) you have for him below. Answers to most or all of the highest-moderated ones will be posted Friday.

PseudoMan was the first with the news: XFree86 3.3.4 has finally been released (yes, you can actually see the contents of the directory now). Rumour has it that the new release contains support for various Matrox cards, and may be the last release before we see 3.9 show up. Update: 07/20 06:05 by J : It seems that the first public beta of 4.0, 3.9.15, is now available. xinerama, here I come!

Matt sent us the story over at SGI, officially confirming that they have worked with Number Nine to release the drivers for their uber-cool flat screen 1600SW into 3.3.3.1 of XFree86. The two will also be working more closely together in the future as well.

sfid writes "Just read at XFree86 about the release plans for 4.0. The first beta will be availiable in July, further on there will be releases every 4-6 weeks. " Mentions several new chipsets in the 3.3.x tree, as well as several interesting new features for the 4.0 tree including video in a window, multihead, integrated TrueType, as well as 3D support Precision Insight's DRI stuff (which looked really excellent at LinuxExpo), Mesa, or SGIs GLX.

An AC was the first to inform us that Silicon Graphics has released GLX as Open Source for Xfree86 in order to stimulate the number of hardware-accelerated 3D drivers supported by Xfree86. Interestingly Red Hat and SGI are funding new driver work to be done by Precision Insight on a multiple pipe 3D architecture extension for X. Precision Insight were the people who brought the NeoMagic drivers to Xfree86 under contract to Red Hat. Of course it comes with its own license: anyone care to comment on it? Grab the code here.

Linux Game tome is reporting that Heretic has been ported to Linux, specifically to GGI and X. Go get it here!. Link courtesy of LT. (Note: Due to my 28.8 modem I have not tested it yet).

Booker writes " There was lots of gnashing-of-teeth over the evil lords at Nvidia "obfuscating" the source for Xfree86. The latest on the XFree86 web page states that the "Open Source NVIDIA driver has been included" for 3.3.3.1. " It also adds Gnu/HURD support, and improved Media GX support.

fatcat writes "Original statement on XFree.org regarding the NVIDIA source code." H:I've also included the statement-click below to read it. After we had finalized XFree86 3.3.3, and within hours of our planned release, NVIDIA insisted that we withdraw two source files from the driver that they had supplied to us and replace some other source files with versions that were partly run through the C preprocessor. NVIDIA's stated reason for this was to remove some of the names that they thought might reveal intellectual property from NVIDIA. This resulted in somewhat unreadable and unmaintainable code. The XFree86 Project is strongly opposed to such obfuscated code. Among other things, such code does not satisfy the Open Source definition of "Source Code", which states that The source code must be the preferred form in which a programmer would modify the program. Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed. Intermediate forms such as the output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed. Due to the extremely late date of this decision by NVIDIA, we decided to include the code as offered by NVIDIA. All other options would have significantly delayed the release of XFree86-3.3.3. We'll try to work with NVIDIA to find a more acceptable solution so that the code can remain in future releases.

An Anonymous Coward wrote in to say XFree86 3.3.3 has been released (finally!). The new version fixes lots of bugs and a lot of security holes, but the real highlights include the XFCom integration (incl. Matrox and NeoMagic), a vesafb server, and lots more XInput drivers.

mrproper sent us a link to a User Friendly noting that a strip this week featured those Penguin Caffeinated Peppermints that nearly killed me at ALS. Judah wrote in to say that the November issue of the LinuxGazette is now online. Ignacio wrote in to note that the XFree86 3.3.3 will be out this month, and the XF86_SVGA server will support the Matrox Gx00 video cards. Sixl6 wrote in to send us a link to an entertaining catalog oof christmas presents for, well, crazy people. I'm disturbed that this exists. Pleased, but disturbed. Tim Doran wrote in and sent us a link to a moderately humorous usenet post that takes a humorous pot shot at MS with a linux joke. Dave Whitinger wrote in (along with everyone else on earth) to note that Slink has now frozen really for sure definitely (note:I spelled it right!) this time. Debian 2.1 should be ready soon. Lastly, I'm just gonna throw a link out to Taco Hell, where I've posted a bunch of pictures of the old Geek House, as well as goofy pictures of my room mates (including myself and Hemos).

The XFree86 project has issued a press release regarding the status of the X11R6.4 licensing issues, and the SI (sample implementation). Also in the release are statements from Theo De Raadt and Linus Torvalds. Thanks to Andy Tai (who has a very funny image everyone should look at) for pointing this out.

The XFree86 project has issued a press release regarding the status of the X11R6.4 licensing issues, and the SI (sample implementation). Also in the release are statements from Theo De Raadt and Linus Torvalds. Thanks to Andy Tai (who has a very funny image everyone should look at) for pointing this out.

Edwin wrote in to tell us that the latest version of XFree86 is out. New features and bug fixes are in, but the web page hasn't updated yet so I haven't got a good list of major changes. I want Neomagic support and fixes for the Millenium @24bit, but beggers can't be choosers.