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XOrg Foundation Opens Membership and Elections

XOrg Foundation writes "To active developers and users of the X Window System:You are invited to join and help shape the direction of the new X.Org Foundation. Membership in the X.Org Foundation is now open and free.Applications for membership are sought from all contributors to the X and Desktop communities." Read more below for the rest of the information from the foundation.

The Interim Board of directors has established that examples of acceptable
contributions that will qualify you for membership in the Foundation include
coding, bug-fixing, testing, design, documentation, translation,
administration or maintenance of project-wide resources, speaking at
conferences, and supporting bugzilla or release management.

Should you wish to apply for free membership in the X.Org Foundation, then
please visit:

http://www.x.org/XOrg_Foundation_Membership.html

All Members are eligible for election to the Board of Directors and the
Architecture Group of the XOrg Foundation. The XOrg Foundation is now
seeking nominations for candidates for election to these groups.

Nominations for each election are open until 23.59 PDT on Friday 30th April
2004 for those Members of the X.Org Foundation who wish to stand for
election. You may nominate yourself for election. You may not nominate any
other member.

There will be 8 people elected to each of the Board of Directors and the
Architecture Group. In this first year of the X.Org Foundation, the four
candidates polling the most votes in each election will be granted a two
year term of office (until June 2006), and the next four candidates will
receive 1 year term of office (until June 2005). In subsequent years, four
seats of each group will be re-elected in the annual elections.

It is permissible for a candidate to stand for election for both the Board
of Directors and the Architecture Group.

The responsibilities of an elected person are detailed in the current
Bylaws of the X.Org Foundation, which can be found at:

http://www.x.org/XOrg_ByLaws_17Sep03.pdf

In addition, an elected person will be required to attend the annual
meeting of the X.Org Foundation, which will be held a location determined
in advance by the Board of Directors.

Should you wish to enter your candidacy for these elections, then please
prepare a personal statement of up to 200 words that can be provided to
prospective voters. This statement, and the statement of contribution to
the X.Org Foundation (which you completed when applying for membership)
will be made available to all voters to help them make their voting
decisions.

Once you have completed your personal statement, then you may visit:

http://www.x.org/member/XOrg_Foundation_Election_N omination.tpl

to enter your candidacy for the X.Org Foundation elections.

We look forward to your membership and candidacy submissions,

The Interim Board
X.Org Foundation."

30 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. I registered, by nevek · · Score: 3, Funny

    Nevek For Governor!!

    Whats an xwindows system?

  2. great for pickup factor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    well helllloooo ladies, I'm a member of X.org...

  3. X.org election sponsored by Diebold E-Voting by norculf · · Score: 4, Funny

    Seriously I hope they have a more reliable system than that.

    1. Re:X.org election sponsored by Diebold E-Voting by nacturation · · Score: 3, Funny

      They are using Majordomo. Everyone knows that there is no way to stuff the ballot box when you use an open mailing list.

      At least it beats Diebold's system which appears to run on Majordumbass.

      --
      Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
    2. Re:X.org election sponsored by Diebold E-Voting by kikta · · Score: 3, Funny

      It'll be done via a Slashdot poll... ...meaning CowboyNeal will now be running X.org.

  4. Why? by mtenhagen · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Does anyone know why they are doing this?

    Whas the organisation failing apart and they are desperate for new members?
    Or are they financially healthy and want to grow bigger this way?

    --
    200GB/2TB $7.95 Coupon: SAVE90DOLLAR
    1. Re:Why? by vossman77 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      My understanding is that Keith Packard (had guy right now) had griefs over the approx. lifetime membership in the xfree86 project. The xfree86 blocked new developers from coming on and kept old uninterested developers onteh staff. Keith wanted the whole system to be more open and that is why he forked. This is his method for the new system.

  5. Haiku Breaks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think you meant:

    the line breaks used in
    t' f'ing a'ticle were
    a bit excessive

    -theGreater Hack-u.

    1. Re:Haiku Breaks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny
      You mean something like this?

      Like storm-tossed forests,
      cluttered and impsassable:
      Those line breaks just suck.

    2. Re:Haiku Breaks by Hard_Code · · Score: 3, Funny

      Summer comes again
      Trolls and dorks proliferate:
      we must save haiku!

      Joke Haiku is bad
      Disrespectful and stupid:
      just go kill yourself

      You're missing the point
      if you think that joke haiku is
      not self-mocking

      Banality is
      used to mock austerity:
      a glorious cause

      You're right this is fun
      I could go on forever:
      you made a monster

      --

      It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
  6. This reminds me of a Nigerian scam email by Slashdot+Hivemind · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think it's the personal addressing and the crap formatting. Are all the modalities assured in this risk free venture?

  7. Cool.. by sokkalf · · Score: 5, Funny

    Do you get a fancy @x.org mailaddress?

  8. Re:What ever happened to simple OS? by lurwas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Elections and official positions are decided by the community itself. It's called a democratic process.
    Hey, it even works sometimes ;)

  9. XF86.Org.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Interesting way to go tell XF86.Org to go pound sand.. First release their old licensed code, then demonstrate how much more open your board of directors is... I think I like it..

  10. I hope they solve by UltimaGuy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    the myriad of problems users of GUI in Linux face. I mean, common, it surely pisses me if I have to edit a config file by hand if I install any nvidia driver. Also, I hate to do it again when I recompile a new kernel.
    Also, I hope they provide a solid backdrop from where desktop linux can emerge.

    --
    "In questions of science the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual."
  11. Corp. Involvement? by i.r.id10t · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Anyone know if NVidia or ATI is going to be involved with this? Sure would be nice to have stable drivers for 3d acceleration from the get-go...

    --
    Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
  12. Re:More infighting? by vidarh · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Because obviously there is no infighting and bickering between companies that develop proprietary software?

    Dragging up these kinds of conflicts as a problem with open source projects is a lousy excuse at best.

    In the real world, if clients are "appalled by the infighting and bickering" what it really means is that they are appalled because they got to see what would otherwise to a large extent happen behind closed doors protected by ridiculous membership fees for industry consortiums, or they somehow see it as "infighting and bickering" when it happens on a mailing-list and serious, worthwhile competition when it happens in the form of press releases from large companies.

    If your clients can't handle that, they need to learn - openness means dirty laundry IS aired in public, and ultimately it's a strength that allow users to take organizational risk into account when choosing a software solution, something which is inherently hard to do with companies where all the nasty stuff happens behind the users backs.

  13. KDE/Gnome controlled X.Org? by tahtalim · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Great... Whoever has more developpers can easily control X.Org. Donno if this is good or bad, but at least it won't be company oriented after all.

  14. Re:More infighting? by gr8_phk · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "Consider the dozens of distributions, forks, and delays caused by a licence not being "free enough."

    "In the real world, good-quality software comes with no strings attached."

    Those 2 thing go together. "Free" as in freedom (as in GPL) gets you no-strings. The whole X fork happened because someone tried to add strings.

    "In short, please work on developing good software. As long as it's free as in $0.00, I'll be happy."

    This makes me want to call you all sort of nasty stuff. Why don't YOU go develop something I want and then give it to ME? I'll just sit here and bitch about your development process and complain if it isn't $0.00.

    Or was your post supposed to be a joke and I missed it?

  15. Re:Rant time!! by SmackCrackandPot · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In other words:

    Gripe 1: A packet gets sent EVERY TIME THE CURSOR BLINKS!

    Could it be possible to specify the cursor blink rate in X-windows?

    Gripe 2: Why does the ENTIRE app need to redraw itself (using huge amounts of network bandwidth) every time I obscure it with a window or hop to another virtual desktop???

    Could X-windows support display lists like OpenGL?

  16. Re:Rant time!! by FooBarWidget · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Look, if you want them to listen to you, then calm down and don't use CAPITALS or "????!!!!" all over the place. It makes you look like a zealot with emotional problems.

    Anyway... a large part of the slowness over the network are caused by the toolkit and the apps, not by the protocol itself! QT and GTK do not use the X protocol efficiently.
    Until the toolkits and apps are fixed, use NX compression. I heard it does wonders and makes Mozilla usable even over a modem.

  17. Only Nvidia can solve that, by anti-NAT · · Score: 4, Interesting

    by openning up their hardware programming specifications.

    I have none of the problems you mention, and that is because my video card has open programming specifications.

    --
    The Internet's nature is peer to peer - 20050301_cs_profs.pdf
  18. Re:Rant time!! by noselasd · · Score: 4, Informative

    >2: Why does the ENTIRE app need to redraw itself (using huge amounts of
    >network bandwidth) every time I obscure it with a window or hop to
    >another virtual desktop??? The damned thing is already wasting traffic
    >updating when I'm not even lookin g at it, why does it need to redraw
    >AGAIN when I view the window again???? Now onto my final gripe for
    >right now.
    Toolkit problem. Don't blame that on X.

    >Gripe 3: If X is such a truly network independent application why the
    >hell can't I simply redirect the output of an already running process
    >to any X-term???
    Cause ther's a lot of state residing on the X server about every
    application/Xwindow. And there is no current way of transferring
    that state to another X server.

  19. Re:Rant time!! by BlueWonder · · Score: 3, Insightful
    When are we going to see some real improvements to the X protocol?? [...] Gripe 1: A packet gets sent EVERY TIME THE CURSOR BLINKS!!! Why the fsck is that needed?? Even when I am on a separate virtual desktop and not viewing the app the traffic is STILL SENT!!

    The latter is a problem with the app, not with the X protocol. The X protocol allows it to notify an app when its windows are mapped or unmapped, so the app needn't attempt to make the cursor blink in an unmapped window.

    Gripe 2: Why does the ENTIRE app need to redraw itself (using huge amounts of network bandwidth) every time I obscure it with a window or hop to another virtual desktop???

    That's a problem with the capabilities and/or configuration of the X server, but not with the X protocol. The protocol allows backing store and save under.

  20. Re:GPL? by Weird+O'Puns · · Score: 5, Informative

    Xorg isn't licensed GPL but with the old XFree license(v.1.0) that is GPL compatible. The big discussion was because the latest XFree license(v.1.1) holds a clause that makes it incompatible with GPL, which then might produce massive problems with anything linked to it. This isn't yet a problem as the XFree's xlib is still using the old license, but people fear it might be in the future.

  21. Re:Would that make you on of the X men? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    well if i had a rubber suit id be late.x man

  22. This is informative? by Svartalf · · Score: 5, Informative

    Uh, XFree86 has never been GPLed or LGPLed. It's under an MIT/X11 license variant since it's inception- I know, I had to license code modifications to the Utah-GLX source base under that license. What transpired was that the guy in charge of the XFree86 project changed the license to more of a BSD-ish license that requires advertising, etc. This made the newly licensed version incompatible on a licensing level with any GPLed OS- you can use it, you just can't distribute the new version of XFree86 with a Linux distribution without the prospects of possible legal hassles, etc.

    --
    I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
    1. Re:This is informative? by Arker · · Score: 3, Informative

      What transpired was that the guy in charge of the XFree86 project changed the license to more of a BSD-ish license that requires advertising, etc.

      Yes, they recently changed to something resembling the old BSD license, including an advertising clause, which makes it not compatible with the GPL. That's the licensing tiff. However this came after the original split between the groups, where some people walked away from the Xfree86 project because of other issues - problems getting changes commited, folks that hadn't developed in years still having developer status while folks that were major current contributors couldn't get it, and had to go through a huge rigamarole to get bug fixes posted and the like. So it was really the combination of the two different issues that brought the current situation about - the first group that split were fortuitously positioned to pick things up when the license change drove the second group to leave and the Linux Distro-makers decided they didn't want anything to do with the new Xfree86.

      This made the newly licensed version incompatible on a licensing level with any GPLed OS- you can use it, you just can't distribute the new version of XFree86 with a Linux distribution without the prospects of possible legal hassles, etc.

      This isn't actually true. You can distribute non-free software on the same disk with free, that's not the problem at all.

      The problem is that you can't link the code. If your GPL program needs to link against some of the new Xfree code, then you have a legal problem because of the licenses being incompatible. In most cases that's probably not necessary, but in the cases where it is it's a huge problem, and while shipping the new Xfree86 in a distro would not necessarily be a legal problem (particularly since the new license affects only the new code,) it would still be opening the door to huge problems later on, and that's why no one wants to touch the thing. Hopefully the fact that this license change has just dropped Xfree86 from being the defacto standard X11 implementation to being a historical footnote overnight will act as a warning to anyone else that might be considering the same course of action.

      The Xfree86 project still seems to be in denial about this, btw, as a quick browse of their website will show, but the fact remains - no one is using their new version, no one will touch it with a ten foot pole, and their developers are hemmoraging like crazy.

      --
      =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
      Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
  23. Re:Rant time!! by Hornsby · · Score: 4, Informative

    Gripe 3: If X is such a truly network independent application why the hell can't I simply redirect the output of an already running process to any X-term?

    You can easily do this if you use screen. I do it all the time.

    http://www.guckes.net/screen/

    Use it like this:

    user@host:~$ screen -S longcompile
    user@host:~$ make


    Now press ctrl-a then d to detach.

    Close all your terms and go home.
    Now ssh back into the machine and type screen -R longcompile to reconnect to your compile session. You can detach and reattach as often as you like. It also has a lot more features, but I'll let you RTM for those.

    --
    A musician without the RIAA, is like a fish without a bicycle.
  24. Re:Forks by kundor · · Score: 3, Informative
    the exact same nvidia and ati drivers work perfectly on both Xfree86 and X.org.

    Please stop your fud.