X.org X11 Server Release 6.8

kormoc writes "The developers of X.org have just release the long-desired version 6.8.0. This release brings real translucency and allows one to set values on different windows. Also, nifty drop shadows as well as XDamage, an extention that limits redrawing of windows to only the areas that were damaged. The Xcomposite extention is still not stable, but it works well for some people. Why not give it a shot?"

Comments

Is it as good as Citrix?

[jkrise]

On the bandwidth requirement fromt? Frankly, I don't u'stand why we don't have a good windowing environment atleast half as good as Citrix so far. The X-Damage stuff could be the ticket though.

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how much of this is affecting X11 *the* protocol ?

[Gopal.V]

I'm all for innovation and all that, but I've been burned a couple of times with protocols moving around a bit too often (for example mysql protocol between 4.0 and 4.1).

How much is XDAMAGE changing the original X11 protocol on wire ?. I have beed using something called WierdX, which is deployed as a JNLP in our project's webserver . Do these new extensions change something fundamental or is it just not applicable for remote X11 ?.

Hmm.. I just wish X11 would use my Video card instead of hogging CPU for those purty gradients and translucent windows.

NO T JUST EYE CANDY!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't forget that this improves much more then just adding real tranpsarencies!

X is a networking protocol not a gui!

Stuff like XDamage makes it easier to use over slower connections, for example.

The move to more and more extensions and reducing the monolythic nature of X is great. But it's slow and a evolutionary manner. But as you get more and more modular, stability will increase as will speed of developement. Each section can make changes and not worry about the impact on other parts of the X server.

Unlike the monolythic model of lumping everything into Xlibs and making it difficult to program for and adding new features while retiring obsolete ones.

Look forward to things like pure OpenGL enviroment! Now you have to have 2 drivers for every 1 video card... one for 2-d and one for 3-d.

Currently each application must deal with 3-dness independantly of each other. They must deal with the hardware independantly. Does Quake3 work over a network? No! But it can if they move everything to the X server. Each window then would automaticly be hardware accelerated, even if it was originally designed for the old way of doing things. Windows and items can be 3-d straight from the desktop.

That and dozens of other improvements are coming. This XDamage and Composite stuff is just laying the groundwork for more stuff, more progress.

Re:NO T JUST EYE CANDY!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

I do this with Unreal Tournament. Start it on my brothers computer with a fast CPU, and run in on my own with a fast GPU.
The X protocol _does_ already stream OpenGL commands, so I get best of both worlds. A fast CPU and GPU.
Quake3 doesnt work, because it expects som OpenGL commands that X doesnt stream. When this is fixed in X (or libopengl.so), Quake3 will also work over network. I really doubt this will happen on purpose, and I therefore dont think we will see this functionality in the first 5 years.

But try it with other games, UT, Savage and the like - wonderfully to run from other computers :)

Re:Why do people care so much about drop shadows?

[Draoi]

Firstly, I have 2 eyes, so I can already do depth.

That's of zero use on a 2D screen! Close one eye. Spot the difference? Nope, me neither.

Second, without drop shadows, it is really easy to see which window has focus:

Your URL screwed up. Try this. I disagree with the point that drop shadow interferes with focus. Right now, my focussed window has a *deeper* dropshadow than all the others, giving the illusion that it is actually 'closer', not to mention the outlining, title bar colouring, etc, etc

Re:Screenshots

[mc_barron]

Man, I wish there was a way to identify all the components within a screenshot - too many times I see an amazing linux desktop but have no idea what applications are running to get it looking that way.

For instance, where did they get this kicker bar:
http://img38.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img38&image=screen_ lynucs_1759409500411796a9ba106_1.jpg

Also, will drop shadows and tranlucency work with any windows manager (i.e. XFCE4), or do I have to be running Gnome/KDE?

Help ! I'm all mixed up with X version numbers...

[dom1234]

Could somebody clarify it all ?

There's http://xfree.org and there's http://x.org . What's the difference between both ? And about the version numbers ? What do they stand for ? I have X11R6, v. 4.3 or something like that installed on my computer, and now they announce X version 6.8.0 ?! What does the 6 mean ? The 11 ? The 6.8.0 ? (And where the hell does the X come from ?)

Thanks in advance !

Re:Gentoo!

[huge colin]

I run Gentoo, and I've had the Composite extension working to some extent since RC2. As of RC4, it works more or less perfectly and X is just about as fast as without it.

Future enhancements to various window managers and applications should take advantage of these new X features. (xcompmgr and transset are clumsy utilities intended only for proof-of-concept.) For example, KDE's feature plan notes that true transparency has already been implemented in Konsole.

Runs shadows/transparency smoothly:

GeForce FX 5900

Athlon XP 2000+

--Colin

REAL Transparency Screenshots

[xiando]

Check out the X.org 6.8 Screenshots at LinuxReviews, showing off the new real transparency and drop shadow technology. These things may not increase your shareholder value, but it will allow you to impress people in a big way.

Archaic build

[Sunspire]

Man I can't wait for the autotooled X.org releases sometime in the future (debrix or whatever the branch name is called).

Building this beast is a trip down memory lane to the bad old days. Half way trough it bombs out on me because it can't find bison (now there's a program I haven't yet needed this century). So you install the program and continue on with "make World". What follows is the longest "clean" operation I've ever seen. Forget about just picking up compiling where it left. You're better of deleting the whole tree and unpacking the sources again, trust me, you'll save time.

Imake was a piece of shit when it was new and unsuprisingly it still holds true in 2004. However if it wasn't for X.org and Freedesktop I bet we'd still be compiling XFree86 5.0 with this pos a few years from now, at least someone at X.org is working on moving to the autotools for the next release.

Re:Goodbye to XFree forever

[Anonymous Coward]

People fail to realize that a lot of this work has been going on for years. I mean, sure we are making significant progress, but Keith has been investigating a possible "X translucency extension" since a paper he wrote in 2000 demonstrating its feasibility. Remember that because of his grand ideas and the fact that he wasn't sharing information with the incompetent XF86 board of directors, he was exiled from the group.

So these extensions didn't happen in the last 9 months. They have been brewing for a while and are a lot further along than you might think. There is a ways to go, and Keith said that we are going halfway there on xserver (I think he means that we have opengl rendering and other backend tweaks to do in the future). But X is definitely getting a facelift.

Re:What?!

[GeekDork]

Actually, OpenGL can be set to output a set of "simple" drawing commands instead of drawing to a display context, that can be converted to pretty much any required output format like PostScript. So theoretically, it's easy to create high-resolution output from any OGL surface.