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Slackware Chooses X.org Server Over XFree86
Ananamous Coward writes "Some big distros had already dumped XFree86 for X.org for license reasons, but now Slackware, one of the most classical and stable ones, has announced in its changelog for slackware-current that they are switching to X.org, mostly for compatibility reasons. Looks like X.org is now the future of X for Linux ..."
Switched to X11R6.7.0 from X.Org. Thanks to those who sent comments to /pub/slackware/unsupported/ directory on the FTP site.
x@slackware.com. Seems the community has spoken, because the opinions were
more than 4 to 1 in favor of using the X.Org release as the default version
of X. I think I've heard just about every side to this issue now, and it was
only after careful consideration and testing that this decision was made.
It's primarily (as is usual around here) a technical decision. Nearly
everyone else is going with X.Org and it seems to me that sticking with
XFree86 it spite of this would be asking for compatibility trouble (indeed,
we saw some issues between X.Org and XFree86 4.4.0 until a few things in
XFree86 were patched). I also noticed that the ATI Radeon binary drivers
designed for XFree86 4.3.0 do not work with XFree86 4.4.0, but do work with
the X.Org release. Something I'm *not* in favor of is dragging around two
nearly identical projects, so XFree86 4.4.0 has been moved to the
I'd like to take this moment to thank the XFree86 Project for all the truly
amazing work they've done all these years, and to wish the project the best
of luck. Slackware owes the XFree86 Project a debt of gratitude and will
always include the XFree86 acknowledgement, even if we are no longer
shipping XFree86.
it seems the reason is for compatibility since other distros are moving to X.org too, not because of the license change
Marge, get me your address book, 4 beers, and my conversation hat.
Apparently ATI drivers from XFree 4.3.0 work with X.Org
It won't. The X.org fork came about because of the issues with XFree management. Over the last year, the folks at X.org have gained momentum and are now seen as the main fork...not XFree.
If XFree didn't drive so many developers to create the X.org fork, there wouldn't be a transition.
In short, X.org is routing around the dammage.
interesting question! (to me at least :P)
Based on XFree86 4.3 for Panther, X11 for Mac OS X gives you a complete, rootless X11R6.6 implementation
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/x11/
Here's to finally giving Bush his exit strategy in November
They have an implementation based on XFree86 4.3.0. Here is the text from the about box
The X Window System
X11 1.0 - XFree86 4.3.0
Copyright © 2003, Apple Computer, Inc.
Copyright © 2003, XFree86 Project, Inc.
Panther was released before this whole mess went down though. Perhaps things will change for Tiger's release.
X.org is stuck with XFree86 4.4 rc2 and I see no development of this project
Tha's becuase you're not looking. The XDamage and XFixes extensions from Keith Packard's xserver project are already integrated into x.org's code, and they're working on getting the compositing code integrated with the rest of it. Together those extensions will lay the groundwork for flashy high-performance graphics like Apple's Quartz Extreme, or Microsoft's Longhorn in X11. All of these are new features that were either turned down by the XFree "leaders", or written by programmers they had driven away from the project in the past.
Who develops X.org? Who??
Mostly developers that got fed up with the glacial pace of XFree.
XFree86 is about to issue 4.5 alpha soon
Which is really just the current release with a few bugfixes and minor driver updates, like every release XFree has made since 4.0.0.
I had to upgrade my FreeBSD desktop from XFree86 4.3 to 4.4 to get my Radeon 9200 to work. Know what? It took about ten minutes and entailed downloading a bunch of packages and running the install script. Not a big problem.
It's true that noobies and most people who don't really care about the GUI will stick with whatever is the default but I'm simply not worried about compatibility. As always (in the *nix world) we have a choice.
The Signal/Noise ratio can be improved in two ways. Remaining silent is the OTHER way.
See also what KeithP & Co. does in -CURRENT. This is their to do list. Release notes.
Nope. Fonts are in /usr/share/fonts instead of usr/lib/X11R6/fonts (or whatever it was), and the config file in /etc/X11/ is named xorg.conf instead, but these aren't things a typical user will notice or care about.
The only overt difference is that it seems slightly faster.
Or twin? Console window manager. Gotta love it. Even has an XMMS applet. ;)
X.org has lame little dropshadows everywhere.
.Xresources will use the core cursor functionality rather than alternate alpha-blended cursors.
XFree86 has RENDER capabilities as well. In any event, these are toggleable.
Xcursor.core: true in your
From the same guy that fucked up Xft.
Keith Packard *designed* Xft, so if you don't like his work, you don't like Xft. I think that few people would complain too much about Xft/fontconfig -- it provides significant functionality that the old X11 stuff didn't, including more advanced rendering, user-installable fonts, a font-selection system that doesn't scare regular users, etc.
May we never see th
I'd say Gentoo has half-taken the plunge. I just did a new install a few days ago and virtual-x11 or whatever points to x.org, not xfree. Of course, with X.org masked (~x86), this means the default X11 is masked, which is weird and should probably be fixed one way or the other.