New, Modularized X Window Release Now Available for Download

By Leon Shiman, X.org -- X11R7.0 is the first release of the complete modularized and autotooled source code base for the X Window System. It is the first major version release of the X Window System in more than a decade. X11R6.9, its companion release, contains identical features and uses the exact same source code as X11R7.0, but uses the traditional imake build system. (Read the rest of the announcement below) These changes in source code management, which give openness and transparency to the source code base and employ current technology, invite a new generation of developers to contribute, building on the long tradition of the X Window System. The new modular format offers focused development and rapid, independent updates and distribution of tested modular components as they are ready, freed from the biennial maintenance release timetable.

X11R6.9 is comprised of many distinct components bonded in a single tree, based on imake. X11R7.0 splits that set of components into logically distinct modules, separately developed, built, and maintained by the community of X.Org developers. This simultaneous release gives a transition point for developers, builders, and vendors to adapt their practices to the new X.Org modular process.

X11R7.0 supports Linux and Solaris at this time, with other support pending. X11R7.1, the first modular roll-up release, is scheduled mid-2006. While the monolithic tree will continue to be fully supported and released, new feature development is expected to concentrate on the modular code base.

The X11R7.0 and X11R6.9 releases are the work of more than fifty volunteer contributors worldwide, working under the release management team of Kevin Martin (Head), Alan Coopersmith, and Adam Jackson, with the support of Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, and the unsupported, generous contribution of effort by Adam Jackson.

All X Window System Releases are available from ftp.X.Org and mirror sites worldwide (see http://wiki.x.org/Mirrors). They are distributed under the MIT ("X") License by the X.Org Foundation LLC. Information concerning organization, activities, and mailing lists can be found at www.X.Org. Membership is free and open to contributors. Sponsorship is encouraged to support the global activities of the X.Org Foundation. Current X.Org Sponsors include Sun Microsystems, HP, IBM, StarNet Communications, AttachmateWRQ, Hummingbird, and Integrated Computer Solutions Incorporated [ICS].

In continuous use for over 20 years, the X Window System provides the only standard platform-independent networked graphical window system bridging the heterogeneous platforms in today's enterprise: from network servers to desktops, thin clients, laptops, and hand-helds, independent of operating system and hardware.

* LINUX is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. "Solaris" is a trademark of Sun Microsystems. All company names are trademarks of their registered owners.

-------------------

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Comments

Something you won't see here...

[Anonymous Coward]

This linux-related article is a stub. You can help Slashdot by expanding it.

In other news

[LittleLebowskiUrbanA]

Xfree86 continues their self-imposed slide into obscurity.

Re:In other news

[Red Warrior]

some may claim its survival of the fittest or evolution at work.

Really, I thought it was about intelligent design.

Re:In other news

[Nighttime]

What I find highly amusing is their list of distros carrying XFree86, which hasn't been updated since March 15 2005.

BSD-style based distribution

• NetBSD® Runs on practically everything; highly scaleable. (Offers X.org along with XFree86 in 2.x)
• FreeBSD® Yahoo uses it. Hotmail still might. (Uses X.org as of 5.3)
• MirOS BSD a new NetBSD/OpenBSD hybrid.

Linux® based distribution

• Conectiva Brazilian-based distro with a world-wide following using RPMs. (Absorbed into Mandriva, uses X.org)
• Lycoris Desktop L/X a desktop friendly environment for novices with Bitstream fonts. (Bought by Mandrake)
• Magic Linux when native Chinese-support is desired using ISOs. (Migrating to X.org)
• OneBase Linux a meta distribution. (Offers X.org along with XFree86)
• OpenNa Linux when security matters.
• Peanut Linux when size matters. (now aLinux, uses X.org)
• Plamo Linux best for native Japanese support; Slackware based.
• Rubyx Linux object-oriented ruby is its scripting language. (Now Heretix, uses X.org)
• Source Mage a source-based distro aimed at linux magicians (sys admins) with a social contract. (Offers X.org along with XFree86)
• Sorcerer Linux a source-based distro aimed at linux wizards (sys admins).
• Yoper Linux highly usable, with a KDE 3.3 customised desktop (Migrating to X.org)

I think we need to drop them an e-mail suggesting that the page needs updating :)

Re:In other news

[Bruce Perens]

That is, if anyone but David is working on XFree86. And yes, David did put his foot in it in a real big way.

Fully Modular

[Hatta]

What does this mean for me as an end user?

Re:Fully Modular

[nitehorse]

When a vulnerability is found in libXpm, you won't have to download 15MB of fonts for the update to the library.

Also, drivers will now be released completely independently of the server. So you won't have to wait months for a new driver for your card; maybe a couple of weeks at most.

Re:Fully Modular

[squoozer]

AIUI at this stage not much really. In fact you could probably go as far as to say nothing. It does mean, though, that in the future it will be much easier to add new features and generally work on the code.

Re:Fully Modular

[goofyheadedpunk]

some people find they need an entire operating system just to edit text

I whole heartedly agree! A Real Men doesn't need some wimpy operating system to commmunicate with hardware. Hell, a Real Man doesn't even need a text editor. He just etches his source straight to the hard drive platter with a bic pen.

Re:Fully Modular

[lindi]

"Fully modular" immediately reminded me of "The X-Windows Disaster" which has a chapter titled "X: The First Fully Modular Software Disaster".

Re:Fully Modular

[QuantumG]

You seem to have missed the point. I was refering to EMACS.. an entire operating system running on top of another operating system just to edit text. X is similar, it has device drivers and schedulars and a network layer.. We run X as root and give it intimate access to the hardware that no userland program should have.

Re:Fully Modular

[McCarrum]

Run. Run Now. I'll try to hold them off for as long as I can ..

Re:Fully Modular

[temojen]

Hopefully it'll also mean we can install X client software on a server without also needing to install an X server and fonts too (kind of useless waste of space when you don't have a monitor, keyboard or mouse on the machine)

Re:Fully Modular

[cortana]

This has been true for years! Please stop spreading FUD.

Re:Fully Modular

[cortana]

Well I can't sepeak for apparantly moronised distributions such as the ones you have used, but on Debian, X clients depend on libX11. This is entirely separate from the X server (xserver-xfree86).

Re:Fully Modular

[MattBurke]

There are more operating systems out there running X11 than your favourite RPM-based overly-dependant brand of Linux. Most of them have the sense to distinguish between the need for X client libraries and an X server. I refer to the Free/Net/OpenBSD, Solaris, and AIX servers I have not 10 yards from me now which all happily run X11 apps without having an X server installed. Also I doubt Linux distributions which do things 'properly' like Slackware and Debian would dare install an X server without explicit confirmation although I may be corrected on this latter point.

What this means

[Jotii]

Am I right in saying this will not make any difference to the end users? Making X module-based seems to greatly simplify coding for developers, but does it have any effect for the end user at all?

Good

[revividus]

I'd guess that 99% of Linux users (myself included) do not hack away at the X source code.

On the other hand, I'd guess that for the 1% who do hack X, this will make thier lives easier. Heck, it might even mean more people decide to work on X, which OSS dogma tells us is a Good Thing(TM), and it probably is.

Re:Good

[Fnord]

No, what this means is that of the people who want to hack on the X source code, 99% were unable to get into it because of the interdependant mess that the code was, and the inabillity for most people to commit back.

Now 99% of the people who want to hack on X will be able to find a small isolated module to start on. And now those modules may be able to evolve without breaking the whole. I've wanted to hack at X for a long time, now I very well might.

For the end-users, ...

[c0l0]

... there are a few new features to expect. I'm most curious about the new drivers for ATI's R300-Chips (and newer), called "r300", which will provide GLX-Support (hardware-accelerated OpenGL) in a Free Software-only manner.
Oh, and there are some minor features to be added, like 30Bit visuals for improved greyscale graphics for medical purposes, for example.
 
Apart from the new drivers, there's nothing to be OVERLY excited about this release - unless you're going to build yourself, I'm really looking forward to playing around with portions of the code without having to recompile the whole bloody source again. :)

Why do we need the X?

[dhasenan]

I've been using Windows for years. First they started with numbers after the name, then they put "Me!" instead, then something about experience points. Now that's not enough, and they want prefixes as well.

Screw the bastards. I'm going with Linux.

Re:Why do we need the X?

[karlto]

iAgree.

Stupid troll

[/dev/trash]

Gnu is a trademark of CS Lewis.

Re:Major version release?

[Anonymous Coward]

I would think that if you were used to getting a cheeseburger by driving to McDonalds, waiting in line, then ordering one, but then one day you were sitting in your office and decided that you wanted a cheeseburger and 50 ninja kangaroos showed up, sliced apart the McDonalds building with their jedi lightsabers and then delivered the parts to your office, inside of which they re-assembled the entire McDonalds and the re-assembled cook prepared a quarter-pounder just for you, that you might consider this a major change in the way you get your cheeseburger.

Even if the cheeseburger tasted exactly the same as it would have otherwise.

Re:New developers

[KiloByte]

The autotools are hard enough to learn

Yeah, but they work just wonderful if you want portability to something more than just different Linux distros. Any problems tend to stem from third-party sabotage (for example, Debian source packages mangle timestamps at patch time).

The problem is, you need to be able to edit files using an insane slew of languages. Each of the autotools uses a different one, and in the case of autoconf, you have a weird combination of m4 and sh.

having to figure out imake on top of that was a bit of a hassle.

Oh right, imake is a living proof that you can get a lot worse.

Re:nVidia

[AnXa]

I think that at least couple months to get good EXA support from nVidia as they have to recode some parts their drivers. Expect faster compositation (more eye candy) with this release and better drivers. Also you can expect nv driver doing things what haven't never dream about. nv ships with the R7 so you don't have to wait support for it. 3dacceleration and nvidia. I guess you can use current drivers but I am not sure about them since we have now new acceleration architecture. nVidia has it's own system for this so I don't know if they will implement EXA or continue using their own systems. X will be somewhat faster too if I understood right everything on this page: http://wiki.x.org/wiki/ChangesSince68 that's the changelog and there are plenty of stuff to take a look at. :)

Effect on end user

[jd]

• Modular code is easier to maintain, so expect fewer bugs and a rapid explosion in the number of features. It is also (generally) easier for binary-only extensions, so expect more hardware vendors to support it.
  
• Modular code means that the compiler cannot take advantage of any knowledge of other files when optimizing the code, but this doesn't matter much as the original tree didn't do that either. Commercially optimized versions of X might be fractionally larger and/or slower, though.
  
• Gentoo users are in for an looooong run-up to Christmas. Especially if there is a bug in the e-build.
  
• Fedora Core users will suffer greatly, unless the RPM specs correctly instruct RPM to deinstall legacy components from the old structure. Fedora users will also need to be careful about any RPM files that refer specifically to the old X11 RPMs. The same is true for other package-based distributions - package dependencies may not be tracked correctly, leading to outdated dependencies. At best, updates might fail unexpectedly.
  

Re:nVidia

[Sparks23]

I would think that there'd be an initial delay, but that in the long run it will actually be rather faster this way. Since if a video card driver wants to not share their info, they can now in theory write a modular driver for X11 and release a little binary video driver module, instead of having to release binaries of the entire X11 system.

Granted, the reality may be different than the ideal, but we can hope, right?

means less painful updating your system

[aleator]

the xorg as it is now is about 110MB (binary for i686) in size. it comes out about 2 times a year. means that you have to download every year around 230MB of data to keep your X up-to-date.

BUT (!) actually, you are only 2 weeks of the whole time really up to date, because most of the libraries and drivers are outdated, just a week after the release came out. this means, that you download 230MB and are waiting the whole time for new releases hating the whole system it is organised.

new, the modularised organisation gives the developers and package maintainers the ability to update just one library at a time - to release it immediately it is known to work fine with the rest and the user has the binary of this small library (e.g. 2MB) ready for download in about a week after its release. this means you still download over the year about 200MB of updates, but you are not waiting for relases to fix your problem, because every week or month, a new release of the PARTS of xorg come out and fix problems and add features. this way, the user profits faster from the whole lot of features that come out and fixes that solve problems. (of course, in the old system, you were always able to get the whole sources (hundreds of MB) and compile them yourself (hours to days of compiling, can fail if you use wrong compiler or wrong checkout-time when getting sources))

in the modular organisaiton, also a newbie can then recompile only one part of X, because of the less time it takes and a more transperent process

==> end user gets updates more frequently, has to wait less and has much less pain updating only parts of X

Re:platform-independent?

[penguin-collective]

X11 clients and servers run on Linux, UNIX, Windows, OS X, and dozens of other operating systems.

but I like to suggest that either the people who are developing the X Window System work on this part of their software or drop the claim that they produce platform-independent software.

You don't understand. X11 is a protocol; there are dozens of different client implementations and dozens of different server implementations. X.org and XFree86 happen to be UNIX-centric, but other implementations are not.

Re:Great...

[Sheetrock]

I have a 486 in the corner that's been compiling XFree since 1999.

Every so often I think about cancelling the job, but then I'd have to go shop for a space heater.

Uhmm, what are you talkin about?

[joto]

but X11 is moving more and more out of the main stream and into the non-user and highly geek distros only

So what are the main stream using these days? Fresco? Qt/Embedded? The Y Window System? rio?

and even there, I know many Debian users, for example, who are eager to switch to X.org.

Debian IS using xorg (only stable and maybe testing still uses Xfree86)

Since you are obviously confused, let me clarify. "X", "X11", and "The X Window System" all refers to the same thing. It is a specification for a way of displaying and interacting with graphics in windows on a computer and/or through a network.

X.org used to be the organization that coordinated that specification between various vendors of X11. It also maintained a "reference implementation" that nobody used. Then X11-innovation stagnated among the major unix vendors. X.org slowly died, and XFree86 (a "vendor", and a free implementation) became the defacto standard. Then XFree86 (the organization, not the implementation) did something stupid with their license, and the code was forked by mostly the same people that used to work on XFree86, and they decided to call themselves X.org (and their implementation xorg), since the name now was available).

Today, most everybody uses xorg, not XFree86. This is an update to xorg. To end-users it means zilch, apart from the fact that it's better for developers, and they can expect to see some innovation finally happen in the X11-world (well, in the long-term at least!)

Re:Uhmm, what are you talkin about?

[po8]

You're talking out of your ass. :-) OK, not really, but you and parent seem a bit confused.

In the beginning was the MIT X Consortium. They published the first standards documents for X, funded development of an X test suite to check implementations for standards compliance, and published a "sample" server that was supposed to be a sound implementation of the standards, as well as client-side libraries and utilities. Bob Scheiffler, Keith Packard, and Jim Fulton were the early developers here, with Scheiffler running the technical work and developing most of the architecture.

At some point, MIT and the X Consortium parted company. Some time later, the X Consortium became X/Open, and sometime later X.org.

During this evolution, the XFree86 folks forked the X code and documentation, and started their own development branch. Control of a few assets still remained with X/Open/X.org, and X.org continued to do X support and be used by some commercial vendors, but the X.org work was largely ignored by the PC community.

Recently, most of the X developers became disenchanted with the way XFree86 was being run, and forked X again under the aegis of freedesktop.org. For a variety of good reasons, the outcome of this was to reorganize X.org as a community-source-style foundation for X development. Current open source X work is done almost entirely under the aegis of X.org/freedesktop.org.

So, the standards are independent of the sample implementation, which is not really a reference implementation at all. To answer your other questions; the PC/Solaris only thing is just to push R7 out the door. The hope is to include all the other supported platforms in the "roll up" release due soon.

If I were building a non-PC X server right now, I'd use Kdrive instead of Xorg as a starting point unless I needed some of the advanced features of Xorg such as DRI support. Kdrive is shipped with current X.org distributions, including R6.9 and R7.

Hope this helps.

more features!

[diegocgteleline.es]

This new x.org version is not just about autotooling the server

From http://xorg.freedesktop.org/wiki/ChangesSince68

* New EXA acceleration architecture, with experimental support in sis(4), radeon(4), i128(4) (more to come)
* Individual extensions may be enabled or disabled on the command line using the -extension flag
* Improved chipset probing for IA64
* SecureRPC enabled on Linux by default
* Updated savage(4), including dualhead and DRI support
* Updated XRX support
* Fixes to rootless mode for Cygwin and Darwin ports
* Numerous K&R-to-ANSI C conversions
* Many Darwin fixes
* Updated XvMC support, enabling generic loading of hardware-specific drivers
* Added wsfb(4) video driver for OpenBSD and NetBSD framebuffer consoles
* Numerous ATI driver updates from the GATOS project, including TV input support
* More support for enhanced visuals like 12-bit PseudoColor and 30-bit TrueColor
* Improved ProPolice support
* Updates to nv(4) driver from XFree86 and nVIDIA
* via(4) updates from the Unichrome project, including DRI support
* i810(4) updates, including i915GM/E7721/i945G support and shadowfb support
* Improved module loader support for Alpha chips
* Added mingw port for native Win32 builds
* Updated PCI scanning
* Added DMA support to radeon(4) for Render and Xv operations
* Experimental DRI support for Radeon 9500 and above
* Updated xterm to #204 from [WWW]upstream
* Added evdev(4) input driver for generic input handling on Linux
* Switched to libdl-based module loader
* Improved acceleration for sunffb(4)
* MMX blending routines for the Render extension
* sis(4) updates
* New sisusb(4) driver for USB-attached video
* Tiled framebuffer support for radeon(4)
* Initial support for running the Xorg server without root privileges
* Improved acceleration for newport(4)
* Add DragonFly BSD support
* Update bundled Freetype to 2.1.9
* r128(4) dualhead support
* mach64(4) TV-OUT support
* ATI Theater 200 video decoder support
* SGI Altix support
* Disabled antique [WWW]DPS extension
* Support for FreeBSD/powerpc
* Enhanced software Render core
* Support for more than 12 buttons in the generic mouse(4) driver
* Better support for DRI on 64-bit platforms
* Solaris support updates: enhanced mouse driver, agpgart support, experimental AMD64 support, kbd(4) support, /dev/audio keyboard bell option
* Output-only windows
* Non-rectangular mergedfb desktops
* Update bundled fontconfig to 2.3.2

Re:What other improvements are we expecting to see

[aconkling]

I used to X with a passion when I first started using linux back in 98.
Oh, man, those were the days... when you could not only X but X with a passion. [sighs wistfully]

X is not bad but perhaps Xorg sucks?
Nope. Next question.

What I want to know is if they are planning on [...] adding features like sound support,
Sound support is handled by a sound server, which fortunately runs independently of X.

transparent objects,
You mean like compositing?

anti-aligned fonts (I think support is added now),
Keep your magnet away from my monitor!

resolution changes that dont require a reboot,
Resolution changes don't require a reboot, just a restart of X.

ajax/caml/dashboard or some xml and javascript support ,
Huh?! AJAX is for the Web, CAML is a proprietary language, so of course X.org isn't written therein, and I'm not sure in what way you mean "support for XML or Javascript" other than to say that extensions/plugins/modules (whatever the X people call them) would be significantly slower if written in these languages. Since it seems that you're "concerned" with X's bloat, I'm sure you understand why that'd be a bad idea.

I actually hope this was helpful, but if I was just the unwitting victim of flamebait, I can roll with it.

Re:Keep in mind, ....

[CRCulver]

I guess you forgot that XFree has an unacceptable license that means few Linux distro maintainers could include it.

You'll want to check out the new evdev driver

[goaty_the_flying_sho]

I went from this:

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier "Mouse1"
    Driver "mouse"
    Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
    Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option "MouseButtons" "7"
    Option "ZAxisMapping" "6 7 4 5"
EndSection

to this:

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier "Mouse1"
    Driver "evdev"
    Option "Device" "/dev/input/wheelmouse"
EndSection

Functionality stays the same. It's getting there.

Re:nVidia

[NeoChaosX]

ATi released the specs for their Radeon 9250 chips and older models, so open-source hackers can make our own drivers (it's also the reason why the EXA feature in 7.0 supports ATi cards right now, and not nVidia cards). IMO allowing programmers to make their own open-source drivers with the official specs would be considered a lot more "helpful to Linux" than putting out working but closed-source drivers.

Re:What other improvements are we expecting to see

[ookaze]

Resolution changes don't require a reboot, just a restart of X.

Actually they don't require a restart of X either. The only thing that require a restart of X is a depth change (though I'm not even sure that it actually requires restart of X), like from 32 bpp to 16 bpp.
It was never a problem to me, and I think very few people will need to switch to less than 32 bpp (or rather 24 bpp).