Slashdot Mirror
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 ..."
There are people running Slackware that use a GUI?
Internal Politics triumphed over project development in the XFree86. The future of open source X windows system lies is xorg branch, plus they'll be integrating pretty exciting stuff from Keith P's exciting new FD.o project which will be able to give longhorn run for it's money. I am really looking forward to the kdrive stuff. So Xfree has grown out of it's usefulness and like any rudiments in evolutionary process, it must wither away.
Activists United
To make things even worse - 4 of the distros still listed are "slackware based"
Guess his list will be getting a bit smaller again when these ones update their base systems....
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.
The long national nightmare is over! Finally, I can sleep easily, knowing that all those years of intensive study have been recognized, and in some way, appreciated.
I don't understand what Dawes' problem is. Why would he change the license such that a) no distros want to use the software, and b) no one wants to develop the software? It seems to me like he signed his own death warrant.
Why didn't he just back down? It is totally boggling to me, since it is quite obvious that within a year the XFree86.org X server will now not only not be in use by anyone, but also be totally obsolete.
Apparently ATI drivers from XFree 4.3.0 work with X.Org
Slackware... The official Linux distro of the Klingon Empire!
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.
Now that we've got a stable, mature, and well rounded XServer...
:)
Fuck it, let's make a new one.
I know everything you can possibly flame me for in this post, It's a joke. mod me funny
I'm a signature virus. Please copy me to your signature so I can replicate.
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.
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.
I think the main point behind the post was not the popularity or "bleeding edge" factor of Slackware. It was that Slackware is, in fact, intentionally *not* bleeding edge. The reason that it has a loyal user base is that it's extremely stable and covers mostly just the fundamentals. For a distribution like this to switch to X.org instead of XFree86, says something about the stability and "standardness" (making up words is fun) of X.org.
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
Back in the day, Apple did a series of time/motion studies regarding mousng vs. command keys and command lines. They showed that (for the tasks they studied, of course) in IIRC all casees, the GUI was faster, however the command line users thought they were faster. The explanation de jure was that because your mind is more involved in typing, it seems like less time even though it's more.
Naturally, it depends on what you're doing. I once watched a saleswoman with exactly 1 month's training on computers use the NeXT Interface Builder to build a complete calculator application with working buttons in about 15 minutes, including generating the necessary C functions. All that had to be done to complete the project was to put stuff like "return (B*A);" into the function for multiply, etc. OTOH, using a GUI to compose the algorithm for a complex physics function would probably be counterproductive.
This was back in the early-mid 1980's so I really don't recall the details.
It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
damn stright! I read the Xfree mailing-list around the time when Keith Packard was kicked out of Xfree. David Wexelblat was flaming Keith like there's no tomorrow. Now, Keith is just about the best thing that has happened to X in a long time. He was the one who made all those cool new features (like RENDER-extension). He was the one who was driving the developement of Xfree forward. And they kicked him out.
Who is this Wexelblat-guy who was flaming Keith? He's one of the guys who started Xfree and a member of the core-team. By his own admission, he doesn't hack Xfree anymore. He doesn't even USE Xfree anymore. He said that he uses Windows these days. Only X-related thing he does is that he lurks in the mailinglist.
Keith Packard gets kicked out, while useless deadbeats like Wexelblat are member of the Core. I'd say the sooner Xfree dies off, the better.
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
Nope. They aren't the same. Sometimes the X Window System is called X for shorter. The XFree86 Project produces a freely redistributable open-source implementation of the X Window System. BTW, imagine what had happened if back in the day there were no XFree86 Project. No KDE, no GNOME, no desktop Linux, no X.org, ... and in a few days many people is forgetting about what the XFree86 Project has done and is keep doing... Well, NetBSD hasn't forgetted it as they're shipping it (among others). Patrick has thanked XFree for everything they have done. And don't forget that Slackware Linux has recently changed to X.org