From owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jun 5 12:14:30 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7920816A4CE; Sat, 5 Jun 2004 12:14:30 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mail.soaustin.net (mail.soaustin.net [207.200.4.66]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 52A2543D45; Sat, 5 Jun 2004 12:14:30 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from linimon@lonesome.com) Received: from [192.160.235.2] (cs242743-143.austin.rr.com [24.27.43.143]) (using TLSv1 with cipher RC4-MD5 (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mail.soaustin.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id DD43B1430B; Sat, 5 Jun 2004 14:14:29 -0500 (CDT) From: Mark Linimon Organization: Lonesome Dove Computing Services To: freebsd-x11@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org Date: Sat, 5 Jun 2004 14:11:04 -0500 User-Agent: KMail/1.6.2 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Type: Multipart/Mixed; boundary="Boundary-00=_IrhwAKDeZn7InG3" Message-Id: <200406051411.04259.linimon@lonesome.com> Subject: RFC: add text about freedesktop.org and related topics to FAQ X-BeenThere: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Documentation project List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 05 Jun 2004 19:14:30 -0000 --Boundary-00=_IrhwAKDeZn7InG3 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline I doubt I have to explain to anyone on x11@ why we need this, but for the doc folks, we are continually getting questions on multiple mailing lists about the state of X on FreeBSD. I would like to commit the following after a brief review, since it _is_ getting asked so frequently :-( I have tried to remove as much of the 'political' side of the equation as possible in an effort to be as non- controversial as possible. mcl --Boundary-00=_IrhwAKDeZn7InG3 Content-Type: text/x-diff; charset="us-ascii"; name="diff.out.x" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="diff.out.x" Index: book.sgml =================================================================== RCS file: /home/FreeBSD/dcvs/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/book.sgml,v retrieving revision 1.620 diff -u -r1.620 book.sgml --- book.sgml 31 May 2004 14:58:51 -0000 1.620 +++ book.sgml 5 Jun 2004 18:50:56 -0000 @@ -7002,6 +7002,83 @@ + + What is the X Window System? + + + + + The X Window System is the most popular windowing system + capable of running on UNIX or UNIX-like systems, including + &os;. X.org administers + the X protocol + standards. The current release of the specification + is 11.6, so you will often see references shortened to + X11R6 or even just X11. + + + Many implementations are available for different + architectures and operating systems. For instance, an + implementation of the server-side code is properly known + as an X server. + + + + + + + Which X servers are available for &os;? + + + + + In the past, if you wanted to run X on &os;, you were + basically restricted to running an X implementation called + XFree86™ which is maintained by + The XFree86 Project, + Inc. This software was installed by default on + &os; versions up until 4.10 and 5.2. Although X.org + itself maintained an implementation during that time + period, it was basically only provided as a reference + platform, as it had suffered greatly from bitrot over + the years. + + However, early in 2004, the XFree86 Project split + over issues including the pace of code changes, future + directions, and a licensing change. X.org updated its + source tree to the last XFree86 release before the + licensing change (XFree86 version 4.3.99.903), incorporated + many changes that had previously been maintained separately, + and has released that software as X11R6.7.0. A separate but + related project, + freedesktop.org (or fd.o for short), + is working on rearchitecting the original XFree86 code to + reflect modern graphics card technology (with the goal of + greatly increased performance) and modern software practices + (with the goal of incresed maintainability, and thus faster + releases as well as easier configuration). X.org intends to + incorporate the fd.o changes in its future releases. + + The current technology roadmap for &os; includes + replacing XFree86 with fd.o as the default server sometime + later in 2004 under the assumption that the pace of its + development will more closely match that of &os; itself. + The XFree86 ports + (x11/XFree86-4 and + subports) will remain in the ports collection and be supported + as developer interest permits. Note that it is not currently + possible to mix-and-match pieces of each implementation; this + problem is being actively worked on. + + + The following paragraphs refer to the existing + XFree86 implementation, but most should also be applicable + to the fd.o implementation as well. + + + + + I want to run X, how do I go about it? --Boundary-00=_IrhwAKDeZn7InG3--