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That's true on some projects. There are a few megalomaniac assholes out there. Some are quite successful. Some are not.

Sometimes the users are unreasonable. On smaller projects, you can't expect a two person dev team to drop everything they're working on to add whatever minor feature every user wants. In these cases, it's actually sound advice; if you want it, send us a patch, and we'll give it a try. They're not being assholes in these cases; they just don't have the time. In other cases, you have people who disagree with fundamental parts of a project. They demand sweeping changes that would affect the entire codebase. It's just not possible to make everyone happy.

If you think about it, it's not really that much different than the closed source world; software companies don't bow to the whim of every user that submits an idea. Maybe, if enough people want a feature, they'll add it - but there's no guarantee. With open source, if enough people want a feature, one of those people will probably have the ability and time to code it and submit a patch.

None of those are the reason there are 300+ Linux distros out there. There are a few distros that were forked due to poor management, but most of the time it's down to philosophical differences. Debian exists to fulfill the idea of a completely free platform. Redhat exists to make money. Slackware exists because it's been there since the dawn of time and some people like they way it does things. Ubuntu exists to provide a polished, user-friendly version of Debian. DSL exists for small installs. Many distros exist because some people decided they wanted to try making their own distro. When you get down to it, there's only really a handful of relevant distros out there - the other ones are really only for hobbyists, people with special needs, or people who want to try something different. If one of the small ones comes up with a good idea, it might get adopted by one of the big distros. It's useful, and I don't understand why people think multiple distros is a bad thing.

"Last Modified: 15 March 2005"

What do you mean, Xfree86 is totally still relevant!

will the free fork progress more than the Oracle fork?

Yes, just as X.org eclipsed XFree86.org

Nearest equivalent for X / Linux that I've used is xte, which uses the XTest extension to send keyboard and mouse events to the desktop.
xte is usually included with the "xautomation" package for various distributions.

I've also seen people use xvkbd -text to automate keystrokes (often in concert with xbindkeys), but I've found xte works a bit better in many cases, for example, when activating CTRL/ALT/Shift/etc. modifiers.

To complete the package, xprop can also give you some useful window state information and control so you can find and manipulate application windows.

X is the name of the thing. It is a window system. There should be no 's' at the end. "Window" is not part of the name. Look at any copyright notice, or any related site, like: http://www.xfree86.org/ "Home of the X Window System." The display server is an X Server, not an X-Windows Server. the clients are X clients, not X-windows clients. Look at the wikipedia article, it refers to the X protocol, X terminals, ad nauseam ...

So yeah, there should darn well better be a [sic].

What decade do you live in, man? The 1980s? :/

http://www.xfree86.org/current/mit-shm.html

Also, I used to use X on a 486/66 with 16MB RAM -- and it worked comparable to Win95, which was quite good. My mp3 player has far more juice and memory than that machine did, let alone a netbook.

Please don't take about things you don't know about as if you do.

The first version of xinerama.c in the xfree86.org cvs tree, note the copyright message:

Copyright (c) Digital Equipment Corporation, 1991, 1997

http://cvsweb.xfree86.org/cvsweb/xc/lib/Xinerama/Xinerama.c?rev=1.1&content-type=text/vnd.viewcvs-markup

Nvidia is notorious for awful drivers, especially for dual display. The screensaver issue is also probably from bad Nvidia drivers.

I don't know what you are talking about, but Nvidia makes the only usable Linux drivers on the planet. Go to any linux computer that's not using the Nvidia drivers and run glxinfo (http://www.xfree86.org/4.4.0/glxinfo.1.html) and tell me if it supports framebuffer, pbuffers, GLSL or redirected direct rendering. In fact, if you press the MESA people hard enough, they will disclose that their full openGL compatibility comes with a software render engine.

At the bottom of all this, is the fact that the nvidia driver has a real unified memory manager -- something that I've tried to get with MESA on an Intel/ATI card at great length (I needed fast openGL for some projects). You can do it, but you have to get crazy experimental drivers and patch your kernel in a few dozen places. Oh, and ACPI doesn't work.

TL;DR version: nvidia is "notorious" for having the only working linux drivers in production status, nothing more.

It's Unix-ish. Try compiling X11 (or any of hundreds of other POSIX compliant software packages) from source on a Mac. I'll wait.

X11 compiles just fine.

http://www.xfree86.org/current/Darwin.html
http://developer.apple.com/opensource/tools/X11.html
http://ftp.x.org/pub/X11R6.9.0/doc/html/Darwin.html

My primary complaint is that most OSS developers expect all Unix systems to be Linux systems. Which means that I have to let Linux software get its hooks into my OS X system in order to get anything compiled. Since OS X is NOT Linux, this is quite an unpleasant process.

It's capable of running its own proprietary OS that is specifically designed to not run on any otherwise capable hardware

OS X runs Unix software. Period. I usually get a host of tools installed first thing on my Mac. Thankfully, this has become less and less necessary over time as Apple has started including many of the most useful utilities up front.

xev much?

XFree86 last updated in August of 2007 so just because the majority of all linux and open source distributions went to X.org doesn't mean its gone. The fact that they haven't said that the project is done for on the site says enough.

RE:"when so many other projects depend on it."

is that a good thing? it is not! i think applications that require an x-window-system should be just agnostic enough to allow for the older alternative to xorg, [eg] http://www.xfree86.org/

WindowMaker and Enlightenment

I still use the wallpapers from Rob's 2001-inspired, "Obsidian" theme.

Do you remember when building Enlightenment required the X-Free tools and xmkmf

AT least the "third-party closed-source code" excuse is BS.
if one looks at the last version of nv driver before it got obfuscated (upon nVidia request), you will see that the driver code was actually doing close to nothing:
http://cvsweb.xfree86.org/cvsweb/xc/programs/Xserv er/hw/xfree86/vga256/drivers/nv/Attic/nv3driver.c. diff?r1=1.1.2.5&r2=1.1.2.6&hideattic=0&only_with_t ag=xf-3_3_3

You'll be surprised how significant a fork over a license change can be.

That said, I seriously doubt there will be much traction in GPLv2 forks, as most of the people who appear to oppose GPLv3 either have little respect behind the principles of GPLv2 (and argue as such), or oppose the GPL altogether (I am really not seeing heavy opposition from any group that believes in strong copyleft licenses, using arguments that are based upon the superiority of strong, copyleft, licenses.) Neither of the groups I mentioned has much incentive to hijack development of GPL'd projects to keep them on GPLv2.

http://www.xfree86.org/4.2.0/xmodmap.1.html

Have fun!

Werent we told recently that we no longer have the right to make modifications and compile the apple kernel from source?

No.

Maybe it would be useful to look at it for learning purposes, but now-a-days I believe you can get into quite a bit of trouble if you look at source code thats not your own then go off to make your own project under a different licence.

"Now-a-days"? Try releasing a *BSD system under the GPL, or the Linux kernel+glibc under a BSD license, and see how much trouble you get into.

Whether looking at project X and using its ideas when writing a new project gets you into trouble is another matter. I'm not sure whether the GPL or the modified BSD license or the APSL limits what you can do if you read code covered by that license or not.

XFree86 4.6.0 has been released. I thought that project was dead but appearently it isn't completely (yet).

a rewrite of an X server where the display device is "a file on the harddrive"

No need to rewrite; the Xvfb (virtual frame buffer) server has been part of X for a long time.

I just purchased a Radeon X1300 for a silent system (Sapphire uses a large heat sink, no fan).

I am very disappointed that there is no ATI Linux driver for it. It works with Vesa but that is far from satisfactory (no Xv for instance). I asked ATI when a driver may be available and got the following non-answer:

The Linux drivers available from ATI are provide are "as is". You may be able to get further assistance from the Linux community at the links below:

http://www.linux.org/help/index.html
http://www.linuxdoc.org/
http://www.xfree86.org/

It sure looks to me like ATI is not interested in Linux business.

Grandparent: "resolution changes that dont require a reboot"

Parent: "Resolution changes don't require a reboot, just a restart of X"

Actually, for some time now resolution changes have been possible on the fly using the xrandr utility and associated X extension. On some platforms, xrandr also permits rotating and reflecting the screen on the fly also.

BSD-style based distribution

• NetBSD® Runs on practically everything; highly scaleable. (Offers X.org along with XFree86 in 2.x)
• FreeBSD® Yahoo uses it. Hotmail still might. (Uses X.org as of 5.3)
• MirOS BSD a new NetBSD/OpenBSD hybrid.

Linux® based distribution

• Conectiva Brazilian-based distro with a world-wide following using RPMs. (Absorbed into Mandriva, uses X.org)
• Lycoris Desktop L/X a desktop friendly environment for novices with Bitstream fonts. (Bought by Mandrake)
• Magic Linux when native Chinese-support is desired using ISOs. (Migrating to X.org)
• OneBase Linux a meta distribution. (Offers X.org along with XFree86)
• OpenNa Linux when security matters.
• Peanut Linux when size matters. (now aLinux, uses X.org)
• Plamo Linux best for native Japanese support; Slackware based.
• Rubyx Linux object-oriented ruby is its scripting language. (Now Heretix, uses X.org)
• Source Mage a source-based distro aimed at linux magicians (sys admins) with a social contract. (Offers X.org along with XFree86)
• Sorcerer Linux a source-based distro aimed at linux wizards (sys admins).
• Yoper Linux highly usable, with a KDE 3.3 customised desktop (Migrating to X.org)

I think we need to drop them an e-mail suggesting that the page needs updating :)

Its funny you say that as I know a lot of people who like it that way. In fact I do the
exact same thing on standard pc keyboards (swap caps lock and ctrl). The capslock is hardly ever used while ctrl is used quite a bit (think emacs) so swapping them makes it *much* easier to extensively use the ctrl key instead of stretching the pinky down.

That said, for linux and sun I think you should like into Xmodmap Not only can you software swap the ctrl and
capslock back to the pc position (or as I do swap pc keyboards to the sun position) you can remap the del key to backspace (which I agree is in the wrong place).

Actually if you aren't running X on your sun box the standard place to fix the stupid backspace issue is using stty in your .profile (or whatever shell you use)

stty erase ^?

In any case that will fix your backspace issue. I'm surprised you dont like the ctrl-capslock switch as it really does make life easier..

anyway regardless of how you like it there is no need to purchase an external keyboard for unix systems (except for the mac which has some funky hardware capslock which prevents switching :( :( )

    -avi

Wow. Slashdotted already. Must be all those screenshots -- sorry, they're (obviously) absent here.

Setting Up And Running Kde And Xfree86 With Fink
By: Si_man
Sep 22 2005

This simple guide will go over the basics of setting up and running KDE on MacOSX. First a simple introduction.

What is KDE?
KDE stands for the K Desktop environment. KDE is a graphical user interface much like OSX or Windows, it was originally written for Linux but has been ported to many different OS's. For more information visit: www.kde.org

What is Fink?
Fink is a package management application that will allow you to download and install many Linux applications to run within X11. For more information visit: http://fink.sourceforge.net/

What is Xfree86?
Xfree86 is an X11 window server, a window server is software that displays a Graphical User Interface, and without a window server we couldn't run KDE or any software that requires a GUI. For more information visit: http://www.xfree86.org/

What will I be learning in this tutorial?
You will be learning how to set-up xfree86, Fink and KDE , How to run X11 in a window so you can put it on a second monitor and how to get KDE to load when X11 starts up.

What wont I be learning in this tutorial?
I wont be going into detail on Fink or Fink Commander or all the details of X11 or KDE. I may decide to write a tutorial on package management with Fink at some later point.

What system will I to run this tutorial?
Any Mac running OSX 10.3 or later. Basic knowledge and familiarity with the Terminal. Latest Version of Apple Developer Tools. A machine you are not afraid to modify. Plenty of time and coffee.

Additional: I recommend you run OSX 10.4 or later and have at least a dual processor G4 to analize things at decent speed (even with my Dual 1.25 G4 it took me close to 8 hours to compile KDE and Xfree86 from source).

Also you will be using a program called Pico a lot in this tutorial if you want to get a heads up on the usage of it check out this great article: http://www.appletalk.com.au/articles/index.php?art icle=6830

Part 1 -- Installing Fink.
Open your favourite web browser and point it to

http://fink.sourceforge.net/

Look down the menu bar on the left labelled "Sexions" and select "Download". From here download the latest binary that supports your OS. Feel the black blood drop out of Taco's anus. Relish its taste. Maybe put some in a tart, or in the fridge for later. If you are running 10.4 this should be Fink 0.8.0

Figure 1

Open the disk image. Run the "Fink 0.8.0 Installer.pkg" file. Also drag the folder called "FinkCommander" to your applications folder.

(a bit on FinkCommander, it is a Graphical User Interface for Fink so you will have to spend far less time in the terminal than you usually would, this makes it a lot easier for beginner users.)

Part 2 -- Configuring Fink.
We are now going to configure your eyeball to withstand Taco's gaping anus. Pin your eyelids back, Clockwork Orange style, and squeeze the eyeball into his rectum. Careful not to lose it in there! Fink to use the unstable application builds, now these wont crash all the time or anything like that it means that we will have access to newer versions of the software we will be using , specifically KDE 3.4 which is far superior to KDE 3.3.

Step 1:

Go to Utilities folder and open Terminal, Should be /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app

Figure 2

This will open a command prompt.

Figure 3

Now type in:
sudo pico /sw/etc/fink.conf

Enter your password at the prompt.
At the end of line that begins with "Trees:"

and there's no support for their cards on linux (offical or Xfree).

http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=420&OS ID=20&CatID=2260&SubCatID=110
http://xfree86.org/4.5.0/RELNOTES4.html#43
http://sourceforge.net/projects/unichrome

I would upgrade to the newer acroread-7.x, but that can not be used for easy pdf-to-ps conversion (e.g. acroread -toPostScript < file.pdf > file.ps) without a valid DISPLAY

man Xvfb

Xvfb is an X server that can run on machines with no display hardware and no physical input devices. It emulates a dumb framebuffer using virtual memory.

The primary use of this server was intended to be server testing. The mfb or cfb code for any depth can be exercised with this server without the need for real hardware that supports the desired depths. The X community has found many other novel uses for Xvfb, including testing clients against unusual depths and screen configurations, doing batch processing with Xvfb as a background rendering engine, load testing, as an aid to porting the X server to a new platform, and providing an unobtrusive way to run applications that don't really need an X server but insist on having one anyway.

This is a simple, permissive non-copyleft free software license with a serious flaw: the ``obnoxious BSD advertising clause''. The flaw is not fatal; that is, it does not render the software non-free. But it does cause practical problems, including incompatibility with the GNU GPL.

This is a simple, permissive non-copyleft free software license with a serious flaw: the ``obnoxious BSD advertising clause''. The flaw is not fatal; that is, it does not render the software non-free. But it does cause practical problems, including incompatibility with the GNU GPL.

How can I locate the clause that forbids "extra requirements"?

6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to this License.

In the page with comments about various licenses you can compare what it says about the Original BSD License (free, incompatible with the GPL) and the Modified BSD License (free, compatible with the GPL). The difference between these two was an "obnoxious advertising clause", much like the one in the Microsoft Patent License.

How can I locate the clause that forbids "extra requirements"?

6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to this License.

In the page with comments about various licenses you can compare what it says about the Original BSD License (free, incompatible with the GPL) and the Modified BSD License (free, compatible with the GPL). The difference between these two was an "obnoxious advertising clause", much like the one in the Microsoft Patent License.

It's just the GPL they hate, because they can't use GPL'ed software. See here for example.

Yeah, but I don't think they know it. The funny thing is, they released 4.5.0 (4.4.0 was the one that marked the controversial license change) just a month ago, and I never even heard about it. All the Linuxes and FreeBSD (not sure about NetBSD and OpenBSD) have ditched it in favor of X.org; I don't see why they bother.

How about... there will be BSD because its the only FAIR license that allows ANYONE to use the code?

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
3. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

1. The software to have WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS
2. LIABILITY FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)

I sort of see the new license as a kind of "power grab" on the part of the status quo XFree86 people. They wanted the people who were trying to move X forward to know: "This is XFree86, and we call the shots."

Obviously, it didn't work. I found it quite amusing in 2003 or so when they put up a distro page to brag about who was using the post-license-change XF86. That page has grown since, but when it was first erected, it read: "2 linux dists I've never heard of, plus Slackware."

Contrast that to before, when they didn't bother listing who used XF86, because the list was so all-encompassing. Now, they feel the desperate need to remind us, "yes, people are still using XFree86."

I remember slackware and netbsd were the first "big" guys to use the new XF86. I see freebsd has joined the likes. I think it's a mistake. I'm glad that openbsd guys still have a concience, and of course the Linux people realize that by abandoning XF86, they can get all the bleeding edge desktop enhancements.

Well, according to this it's still used by FreeBSD, NetBSD, and a handful of mostly obscure Linux distro's.

I think the FreeBSD thing is wrong though. Maybe they still ship both or something; but I'm pretty sure FreeBSD has switched to X.org, at least as the default. NetBSD, I have no idea if that's accurate or not.

It's called client site scripting.

What's the JS code to make Firefox 1. not crash if it can't connect to an X11 server, 2. load a URL, 3. print its contents to PDF, and 4. exit? Are you talking about setting the DISPLAY environment variable to an Xvfb?

Um, the Voodoo2 couldn't do 2D at all. It was a 3D-only add-in card that used a video pass-through cable. You still had to have a normal video card.

Wasn't designed for 2d, but that doesn't need to stop you using it as one.

http://xfree86.org/4.4.0/glide.4.html/

Cedega is a non-free version of wine with directx capabilities. You can browse their supported games here.

Of course not all games now-a-days require wine or cedega in order to run on linux. Games like unreal tournament and doom III include fully functional linux versions.

There are several open source games developed for but not limited to linux. torcs, flightgear, tuxracer are some examples.

Projects like libsdl are making cross-platform game development easier.

Probably the biggest problem you'll encounter is building drivers for your video card. I've heard it argued both ways but as I understand it, both nvidia and ati drivers are ass-pains in linux. Nvidia's drivers are free as in beer, not speech. If you don't really care about free-software principles and philosophy then this is not a problem for you. ATI's drivers I understand to perform less than ideally. If you haven't already purchased your video card, I would encourage you to do extensive research beforehand.

In reality, linux distributions have few differences. Any recent, major distribution should be able to accomodate gameplay. I myself use debian unstable for amd64.

As far as performance, it really boils down to hardware. My advice is to install the linux distribution of your choice. Once you get glxgears to run, give ut2004demo a try, and if you like the way it works, then stick with linux.

But at least a user interface can be consistent. Dragging the floppy to the trash would suggest wiping the entire floppy disk, but it doesn't do that; in fact, it makes sure your files aren't deleted!

It's the exact same argument as winders (l)users having to click the start button to shut down... but then, I use fluxbox over xfree86, so intuition isn't really what I look for in a GUI...

"The MPL license, like the BSD license, means a company can incorporate Firefox into a commercial product"

I think you better read the MPL again, it hardly looks anything like BSD and more importantly you cannot incorporate MPL code into a GPL program but you can with the modified BSD license. You can see here what licenses are Free but incompatible with the GPL.

"Most of the Mozilla code base is trilicensed under GPL, LGPL and MPL. So although Firefox can't use GPL code, other GPL projects can use Firefox code."

This wikipedia article says Mozilla is released under the MPL and the GPL which indicates you are correct about it being released under the GPL. I don't see why they just don't stick with the GPL, the MPL doesn't offer anything above what the GPL already guarentees.

it's the OSI approved version of the license. Apparently some old files had the old 4-clause license hanging around.

This is an improvement, and isn't making it any harder for Matt and other's ideas to get out. It's actually making the code MORE open, from the GNU/FSF/OSI standpoint. Nice attempt at a troll, though.

Well, it's called HCI, not HIC. It's called "Request for Proposals", not "Request for Comments".

Anyway, I was among the original supporters and architects of the HCI Persian Linux (FarsiLinux) effort, but it's now far from under any kind of influence from me, and I don't approve most of their actions, I even agree that they don't understand the whole notion properly yet. But it has good effects, specially when they provide funds to companies who loved to work on Linux but couldn't hire good developers. They also have the courage to recommend Linux to the government and the corporations, which helps the evangelization effort. Just look at their home page (top left). Which government organization in the world has the courage to put a Tux logo on their first page?

The history you are mentioning, is partially false and partially incomplete. Just some examples:

• The whole effort of localizing Linux to Persian in a standard way was started before any company was interested in the matter, by Sharif University of Technology's computing center.
• The keyboard layout you are mentioning, which I assume is the one in XFree86 (latest version here), is not designed by any company. It's based on the Iranian standard ISIRI 2901, funded by the same HCI in 1998. It was I who provided the information to Rubert Brady, who then worked for SuSE, as you can see in the file's header. You can also see my Sharif email address there.
• The Windows keyboard layout is a mess, yes, simply because they did not have any contact with Iranian experts to tell them about the national standard, which was developed by HCI. HCI has already agreed to the layout, of course, or otherwise why should have them published it back in 1998?
• Shabdix, the distribution you are talking about, is actually Knoppix-based. HCI is also funding the Chapar Shabdiz company, the distributors of Shabdix, for their release 1.0. I don't recall the exact amount, but it was more than USD 25,000.
• You are mentioning that HCI is defining projects for adding UTF-8 support in Qt and GTK+. That's not so. They are asking for proper internationalization and localization of such programs and libraries. Some examples are: user-friendly bidirectional editing and display (which is very hard), proper display of Persian numbers (which use different shapes than common European ones known in the world as Arabic), proper support of Iranian calendar, etc.
• You are claiming that Chapar Shabdiz was the "only" producer of "actual code". Please show me the code generated by them, and compare it with the amount of code created by Sharif people (GNU FriBidi is just an example, co-maintained by me, used in Abiword and GNOME, and included in many distribution including Fedora and Mandrake). As far as I can tell, there is only one piece of code included in international Linux distributions created by Chapar Shabdiz, and that is the Iranian calendar support in KDE's PIM.

The article implies that proportional motion--you move your finger more quickly, the pointer or scrollpoint moves further--is somehow unique to Synaptics, or is a product of their "knack for navigation."

Uh, yeah, and there's no acceleration setting in X Windows?

I would say this is a dead-end unless Java has an API for accessing video hardware (ala XVideo). Without integration with video playback hardware to prevent buffer copying and hardware scaling, it will never be as good as native code.

The XFree86 website doesn't really reflect these issues either; if they are still working, nobody cares.

There is still activity on the mailing list

What I find strange is that it seems to be ok for some licenses to add restrictions not in the GPL, but not for others.

The GPL (in section 6) disallows posing additional restrictions on
redistribution etc. of GPLed software (including combined works consisting of some GPLed and some non-GPLed software). This means that software under a license that poses restrictions that are not in the GPL can be combined with GPLed software, but the result may not be redistributed.

Now consider, the Artistic License, Version 2.0. This is listed under GPL-compatible licenses.

Consider, also, the XFree86 License, Version 1.1. This license is listed under GPL-incompatible free software licenses.

The XFree86 License 1.1 is deemed incompatible, because it requires that the software includes an acknowledgment of XFree86 in the same place as other such acknowledgments.

The Artistic License 2.0 allows redistribution of a modified version only if it is clearly marked as such. The GPL contains no such requirement to my knowledge.

So, the question is, why is the AL2.0 considered GPL compatible, but not the XF1.1?

I'm a bit confused as to whether you are refering to the original (see the UCB/LBL section) or the revised BSD license.

Under the revised BSD license (which is very similar to the X11 license and is what I am assuming is what you are refering to as the "MIT license") you need only mention copyrights in documentation.

Under the original BSD license you HAVE to mention the copyrights and contributors when the program is used or when the program is advertised.

XvMC helps accelerate MPEG playback. I know it works on recent NVidia cards. Looks like it works on Via and Savage. ATI, I don't know.

MythTV and MPlayer have support (maybe through patches?) for XvMC.

I don't have an XvMC video card. Just passing along what I've seen on MythTV forums.

Yeah, you may be able to hack away to get DRI, but have you ever tried dual-heads? Not much fun.