Wayland Archive
A Possible Replacement to X11?
Reading through this report here, the author gives some well thought out reasons for a next generation Windows Server architecture for X.
How KDE & GNOME Fought their War and Got Things All Backwards
What if FreeDesktop.org started to become the "free software desktop project" and GNOME and KDE slowly became "flavours aimed at different audiences", Seth Nickell wonders in his blog. Seth is having some good ideas about how the future of X11 DEs should feel like, while down that page there is an extra explanation of Storage, the technology we reported last week that Seth is developing.
Kernel Graphics Interface for BSDs
KGI, or Kernel Graphics Interface, provides a framework that allows full 3D accellerated video card drivers to compile on different platforms without any modification to the drivers themselves. KGI, which has been developed on Linux to the point that it's "rather stable," is now available for xBSD.
XFree86 forked into Xouvert
Xouvert is the open, innovative X server that brings tomorrow's technology to your desktop today It looks like they intend to keep everything public and out in the open. They will also be using some advanced development software as well. See the web site to learn more.
GUI Toolkits for The X Window System
This article is aimed at Unix developers who already have some experience with programming languages and want to start developing GUI applications. It may also come in handy if you have used a particular GUI toolkit for some time and want to know whether others might suit your needs better.
Xr: X11 Cross-device Rendering for Vector Graphics
Xr, the 2D Postscript-like graphics library for X is near completion. Xr is a device independent API, and can theoretically be layered upon an API like OpenGL.
SciTech Upcoming 2D Linux Drivers Promise Speed Enhancements
The well-known graphics driver development company, SciTech Software, are closing on releasing a beta of their Linux port of their SciTech SNAP Graphics for Linux. These drivers replace the 2D XFree86 modules for a large number of graphics chipsets. SciTech claims that their latest beta drivers have shown up to 12-15% faster 2D performance than their XFree86 counterparts (for some chipsets). In the initial final release, accelerated 3D via DRI won't be supported though.
Public Review of IPv6 Proposed Enhancements for X11
The members of X.Org announced the availability for Public Review of the proposed enhancements to the X Window System for the support of IPv6. The proposed code and documentation enhancements for both the X Window X11R6.6 Sample Implementation and the XFree86 V4.3.0. As agreed by the members of X.Org, the review of the proposed IPv6 enhancements will be open until 30th May 2003.
Hack Modifies XFree86 to use OpenGL Backend
Since Keith Packard's XWin.org went live a lot of people seem to join the discussion on how to make XFree86 better. Some, even write some code! Gilbert Baumann writes: "I hacked an X server which uses OpenGL for what would be the graphics card driver. We render windows to textures and then assemble them on the screen getting translucent windows for free. Although currently not done, the idea is that we will use OpenGL for rendering the X primitives." Check his screenshots!
XFree86 Fork Imminent?
Reading the notes of yesterday's teleconference with people like Mike Harris from Red Hat, fontconfig's Keith Packard and others, it seems that they have decided to actually do fork the XFree86 codebase or at least to create a parallel organization to "demonstrate how a scalable community might work" (they also seem to email eachother in a non-archived mailing list of a sort). They currently looking for a nice, catchy name for the project, but they have registered xwin.org just in case nothing better will come up. Reactions of the teleconference have been recorded at XFree's public mailing list.
The Next XFree86 Wars: XFT2 vs STSF
Sun is doing quite some work on GNOME and X these days. Their latest project is to create a font library for XFree86, named Stsf, that would replace Fontconfig and Xft2. But the big question is: Does the world need yet another X font library that would create more incompatibility and fragmentation? Update: Sun proposes a new direction for both X.org and XFree86, keep reading for more.
GNOME, KDE Developer Statement Regarding XFree86 Status
A sizeable group of developers from the two leading free software projects developing desktops based on the X Window System, KDE and GNOME, have been discussing the current situation among themselves and decided to draft and release the linked document. Read the 5 points raised by both Gnome and KDE members. Update: X.org comes into the picture, but not everyone is as optimistic.
The XFree86 Fork() Saga Continues; Keith Packard Replies
Now, that was an interesting reading in the XFree86 forum mailing list. We get individuals, companies like Sun, SciTechSoft, Red Hat etc. 'fighting' for issues varying from what XFree86 really needs, down to replacing fontconfig with Sun's stsf, XFree86 co-founder David Wexelblat saying that XFree is today obsolete and that needs to be replaced with a direct-rendered model (by retaining backwards compatibility), Keith Packard replying as to why a new organization to handle X is needed, and more.
Possible XFree86 Fork; The Organization Asks for Input
X11 for Mac OS X Public Beta 3 Released
The new version of X11 for Mac OS X has been just released, with many fixes for annoying bugs. Update: MacDevCenter has a relevant article: "From Exile to X11: A Journey Through Time".
XFree86 4.3.0 Released
The next major version of XFree86, the popular X11 windowing system for Unix, is now available from XFree86's FTP server and its mirrors. Version 4.3.0 offers many new features, including the RandR extension, new mouse cursors, better font engine, better ATi Radeon support and much more.
Hardware Accelerated XDarwin 4.3 is On the Way
The XDarwin project announces that a hardware-accelerated version 4.3 is on the horizon which contains significant font integration functionality with Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar.
X-Desktop: The Browser Based Desktop
"This exciting project is designed to unify different operating system desktop interfaces into a browser only application interface. It helps users to feel comfortable with any application using the interface they are used to. It helps companies to unify their intranet applications into one desktop interface - built on existing interfaces or one which incorporates their own CI. It helps to design the same interface for all types of devices using browsers like PDA and other mobile devices, Notebooks, Desktops, Tablett Computers and any other future devices which may come up." Read more at x-desktop.org and definitely check out their demo!
Bitstream Brings High Quality Fonts to the Linux Desktop
The GNOME Foundation has entered into an agreement with Bitstream who will donate ten high quality fonts to be used with free software (KDE, XFree86, Gnome as well as others). This means distributions can finally ship free desktops/applications with a set of high quality fonts. On other X11 news, XFree86 4.2.99.4 snapshot (4.3 beta) is available for testing.