Slashdot Mirror


XFree86 Fork Gets a Name, Website

Piethein Strengholt writes "Today the Xfree86 fork is a fact. A new project has started and is located at: xouvert.org. Xouvert has been started due to the corporate structure and the slow development of XFree86. They hope to reduce the risk to XFree86 of incorporating new drivers and features."

31 of 647 comments (clear)

  1. xwin.org by ultrabot · · Score: 2, Informative

    Note that this is not xwin.org... I browsed the xwin website a while ago (Keith Packards project) and people there have been complaining about how that project seems dead, while something should start happening. I applaud the effort of these guys.

    --
    Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
    1. Re:xwin.org by gaj · · Score: 3, Informative
      Apparently you didn't bother to actually read much of anything while over at xwin.org. xwin.org is, to quote the page (including the page title) "just a website".

      Xouvert is the project that xwin.org was put in place to instegate.

    2. Re:xwin.org by reynaert · · Score: 1, Informative
      On (very recently created) Xouvier page on the Xwin wiki, somebody made the following comment:
      Shoud have added the following to the list: An attempt by corporate influences and the forces behind GNOME development to integrate technologies related to GNOME directly into the X server, providing an advantage to GNOME over all other window managers. In addition, much of the planning of this fork has been done in secret despite the supposed "openness" proclaimed by the team, and only recently has even the name of the fork been shared with the public. An overall damaging and irresponsible influence on Linux, and the open source community as a whole.
      The XWin wiki doesn't seem to keep a history of changes, so I don't know who wrote that and how credible this is. I certainly hope it isn't true, it would do a lot of damage to Gnome.
    3. Re:xwin.org by reynaert · · Score: 2, Informative

      Ok, apparently there's nothing true to it. Phew :)

    4. Re:xwin.org by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      It was referencing comments on Mosfet (a ex-KDE developer who was kicked off the KDE development team)'s personal webpage. Mosfet himself said that it wasn't true after talking with more people (e.g, Havoc) later on his webpage (mosfet.org/mosfet.arklinux.org, which is down currently-- moving)

  2. Re:That's nice, but... by BrainInAJar · · Score: 2, Informative

    ZOO-VERT.

  3. For those who don't know... by nomis80 · · Score: 5, Informative

    "ouvert" means "open" in French.

  4. On the first line of the page. by FreeLinux · · Score: 2, Informative

    On the first line of the page, it says: Xouvert is an experimental branch of XFree86.

    Looks like you got what you wanted.

    1. Re:On the first line of the page. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Not really, no. Everyone associated with that project, save for the person who made the page apparently, is referring to it as a fork. And in personal conversation they're all referring to it as an eventual replacement and competitor to Xfree86.

      Looks like I got what I was always afraid might happen.

    2. Re:On the first line of the page. by mhesseltine · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yes, it's starting as an experimental branch from XFree. Other experimentals include:

      • GCC/EGCS
      • Emacs/XEmacs
      • Minix/Linux
      • BSD4.4/OpenBSD/NetBSD/FreeBSD
      See a pattern yet? They are doing their own source tree, their own code control, etc. This is not a branch of the official XFree86 project. This is a fork, which will be maintained independently of XFree86. It seems that one of two things will happen here.
      1. The graphics development community splits, with some supporting this project, others supporting XFree (thus reducing the amount of development getting done)
      2. One of these projects will die out either from a mass exodus of developers (everyone leaves the XFree project) or lack of interest (no one moves to this new project)

      While I'm not against going out on a limb and doing something innovative, I just wonder if it would have been better to try and accomplish this within the project that currently exists?

      --
      Overrated / Underrated : Moderation :: Anonymous Coward : Posting
  5. Re:Excellent by SilverSun · · Score: 4, Informative

    Drop the network transparency, make it run framebuffer and XFree is obsolete on desktop.

    Why do people not realize, that X-Windows is NOT sucking because of network transparancy! Any possible design of a clean API for a windowing system will more or less be automatically network transparent. The only this which is not network transparent are stupid ugly hacks. That said, we all know how X sucks, but it is has definitively nothing to do with network transparancy.

    Cheers

    --

    KdenLive/PIAVE - non-linear video editing

  6. Re:Excellent by divec · · Score: 5, Informative
    However, X11's network transparency is just as creaky and obsolete as the rest of the beast. [...] the bandwidth and latency is just obscene when compared to Citrix Metaframe.

    See my previous comment on NX compression. I'm typing this on Galeon running at work, displaying on my home computer over a 56K modem, because it's faster web browsing like this than running the browser locally. NX has to be seen to be believed.

    The interesting thing is, this level of compression is only possible because of the high-level nature of X's network transparency - Citrix / RDP / VNC doesn't run anywhere near as fast.

    --

    perl -e 'fork||print for split//,"hahahaha"'

  7. Re:I hope they integrate NX compression by listen · · Score: 4, Informative

    Only the proxy is GPLed, the Xlib stuff is X11. The proxy is a separate program, so thats ok.

    What is really needed is a driver for the XServer that will duplicate the current X command stream. This could then be sent to the NX proxy, and actually use it as a remote desktop. Also could use VNC, and it could also be useful for providing desktop pagers with full update capability.

  8. Drop XFree86, use Y instead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Frankly, it may be worth jettisoning a lot of the XFree86 baggage and starting anew.

    Y, an X Windows replacement, looks extremely well designed and this guy wrote a pretty complete implementation for his thesis.

    Why not port the useful bits of X - like the hardware drivers - over to this already-established well-designed base instead of trying to hack XFree86 into something of similar quality?

    (Well, the obvious answer, ``to keep the applications`` is fair enough. But a compatibility module wouldn't be too hard, and worth the benefit in the long run.)

  9. Branch not fork by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    So I just checked out the IRC channel, and they emphasized that Xouvert is an experimental branch of X, not a fork.

  10. Re:That's nice, but... by efatapo · · Score: 2, Informative

    I could be mistaken but isn't that how /. came around? Hrm, and now that I check my sources the faq says:

    I wanted to make the URL silly, and unpronounceable.
    So, I guess it has worked before :)

    ~Dan
    http://www.pbase.com/efatapo

  11. Learn to read a sentence. by gumpish · · Score: 2, Informative
    "They hope to reduce the risk to XFree86 of incorporating new drivers and features" ????

    Idea dislexia? Are they really trying prevent new drivers and features?

    Ok, try to follow this:

    They hope to reduce the risk to XFree86...

    Looks like they want to make something less risky to XFree86. I wonder what it is? ...of incorporating new drivers and features

    Ah. They want to make the incorporation of new drivers and features seem less risky to the XFree86 project. As in, "See XF86? We put all these features and drivers into our project. It's not so bad!"
  12. Re:Well then.. by FooBarWidget · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you've ever managed a reasonably large open source project then you know that making everything public from the beginning won't necessarily be a good thing!
    You can't just dump some stuff somewhere on the net and then expect people to contribute. You have to prepare a lot of things, so that people can easily contribute without getting lost in the mess!

    And I don't know who moderated you up but those moderators certainly didn't read the website. I quote:
    "Sat Aug 16 00:59:49 PDT 2003 - You can't download anything yet. We have this website, XWIN is providing Wiki space, and Savannah is providing mailing list and bug tracking services. We are importing the Xfree86 source code into an arch repository right now; the current job is making a script to tag the source files every time a CVS checkout is done. The IRC logging bot still needs to be set up, and code written to archive the logs daily."
    The website has only been up since yesterday! Accusing them for "keeping it secret" and shoot down their image is just stupid, when they've just started recently.

  13. "GUI refresh rate" by yerricde · · Score: 2, Informative

    What is a "GUI refresh rate?"

    It's related to the lag between dragging the mouse pointer down a menu and having the items highlight. It's related to dragging the scroll bar and having the view move smoothly. It's related to dragging a window and having both it and what's under it react smoothly.

    3) Your driver does not support hardware acceleration

    This is one of the major problems. Hardware vendors tend to expose too many of their trade secrets at the register level, and then they use this as an excuse not to release information to driver developers in Free window system implementation projects.

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  14. Re:Something to bring up by Shamashmuddamiq · · Score: 2, Informative
    You don't understand X. Network transparency and device independence are not "features" that were tacked onto X-Windows to make it cooler, those are the philosophies that X-Windows was designed around.

    This is the way every windowing system should be designed, even if you only want to display on one screen. It mimics reality -- there's a display over here, and there's a processor over there. Every "average" person uses a remote desktop. It shouldn't matter if the display is connected via a VGA cable or ethernet (through a network of other computers). It should still allow the same functionality with the same APIs.

    If you were to try to strip network transparency and device independence from X, it would take a lot of work, and you wouldn't gain much.

    Yes, X had design issues. Yes, it's hard to code programs for X (though if you use libs like SDL, KDE, or Gnome, things become very practical very quickly). But these problems are not necessarily caused by its feature set. I'm sure that if the original inventors had known this was going to become the major windowing system for many UNIX-like operating systems over the next few decades, they would have put a little more thought into the API design. But this is the same problem that haunts almost every software project.

    --
    ...just my 2 gil.
  15. Re:Uhmmm... by FooBarWidget · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yes it's compatible. X11 is a protocol, not an implementation. XFree86 is an implementation. Xouvert will be another implementation of the same protocol.

  16. XO by joe_bruin · · Score: 2, Informative

    let me be the first to give this project a usable name:

    XO (pronounced: ex-oh).

    ouvert is french for 'open'. ignore the prank the website is trying to play on you. i don't intend to add the french inflection 'zoovair' every fucking time i say it (much like i like my croissants to be crassandwiches). besides, the name XOPEN is already taken. so there you have it, folks. say it with: me XO is not Xfree86

  17. Re:I hope they integrate NX compression by iserlohn · · Score: 4, Informative

    Maybe you are looking for this-

    http://xf4vnc.sourceforge.net/

  18. Re:That's nice, but... by BagOBones · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you love that one how about the router debate?
    Is the pronunciation a rooter or a rowter.
    The computer device is a rooter.
    The Woodworking tool is a rowter

    Look it up

    --
    EA David Gardner -"... but the consumers have proven that actually what they want is fun."
  19. Stop it, all-together by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Run along over to DirectFB, grab the framebuffer code and modules for your card, or just use their default VESA Framebuffer (works on everything), then try out the XDirectFB module for X Window System ontop of their Framebuffer. Already, DRI/accelerated openGL works by use of their DirectFBGL interface for Matrox G200/G400/G450/G550 and support for DRI/accelerated openGL will be around within a month (work in progress, almost released to public).

    If you don't believe me, here are the direct links to what you need or should see:

    DirectFB graphics support list (project page)
    DirectFBGL (openGL Framebuffer abstraction layer for DRI project's openGL)
    XDirectFB (alternative X Server! Works fast and verry compatible!)

    Accelerated openGL screenshots (Quake3 works without X Window System, although hacked to abstract!)

  20. Re:While we're at it, is Fresco dead? by niceandsunny · · Score: 2, Informative

    Judging from the Fresco-changes list, progress continues to be made, albeit slowly. They really could use some support. If you know C++, check it out, it is an interesting project.

  21. Re:What? by Deusy · · Score: 2, Informative

    "They hope to reduce the risk to XFree86 of incorporating new drivers and features" ????

    Idea dislexia? Are they really trying prevent new drivers and features?

    Heh, if that were the case, I suppose they could stop at their name change and say they're done:)


    The only one with dyslexia here is you.

    "to reduce the risk"... let's put it in baby english for you... "to make it easier"...

    Rewritten: "They hope to make it easier for XFree86 to incorporate new drivers and features"

    You quote something reasonable and pretend it's something else. That's not even trolling, that's just plain stupid.

    --

    Free Gamer - Free games list and commentary

  22. Re:Terrible choice of name. by iso · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's not an "obscure occult reference," it's French for "open." Let me guess: you're American. It's a perfectly acceptable name: the Internet is global, and there are other languages apart from English.

  23. Re:GNU autobuild tools suck. by popeyethesailor · · Score: 2, Informative

    Click here.

  24. Re:This is good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    There are some nice features going into Xouvert, one of them is the auto hardware recognition system which I feel is very cool and should be the way to go.

    From Xouvert Wiki:


    Ouverter is a new hardware auto-detection system build ontop of Xouvert kernel module. Ouverter
    provides hooks to hardware detection and auto configuration. The system would generally auto
    configure most common devices; such as mice, keyboards, gaming devices and DMS supported monitors.
    Ouverter would also auto detect most modern video cards, using a database of card lookup, this
    database would be updated regularly and new card signatures would be added and distributed outside
    the usual Xouvert releases (to faciliate new hardware detection). A windows like display change
    support would be built in as well.



    This is cool and much appericated feature, I wish them luck and wait for their first release.

  25. Re:That's nice, but... by kasperd · · Score: 3, Informative

    Linux is pronounced LIE-nucks.

    On kernel.org you can find the correct pronunciation.

    --

    Do you care about the security of your wireless mouse?