X11/OpenGL/Redhat

[Alan Coopersmith]

Peter Bismuti wrote:
> Xfree86 has become the standard open source X windowing system that is 
> shipped with Linux bundles such as Redhat, but is there a different 
> oepn-source implementation from X.org as well?  I got the impression 
> there was from a posting I read,  but can't seem to verify whether or 
> not this is true.

The original open source X Window System implementation was released by
MIT over two decades ago - this has been maintained over the years by a
series of groups (the X Consortium, the Open Group, the X.Org Group, and
now the X.Org Foundation).

XFree86 forked off from the X.Org main line just over a decade ago to add
support for common x86 graphics cards, and expanded into what became, as
you noted, the standard open source release used by most Linux & BSD
distros.

A mostly friendly relationship extisted between the X.Org & XFree86 groups
over the years, with code being syncrohinzed between the two releases at
various points.   (X.Org incorporated the XFree86 3.x releases into X11R6.4,
XFree86 pulled the various X.Org releases up to X11R6.6 into their trees.)

However, for a variety of reasons, relationships broke down and got rebuilt
differently.   X.Org reformed from an industry consortium to a wide open
foundation with open membership and development practices more like with
other open source projects (easy access to CVS, public bug database, etc.)
The X.Org tree was resynchronized with the XFree86 4.4RC2 tree (just before
XFree86 changed their license terms to include clauses some people object 
to) and new development went forward from their for the X11R6.7 & X11R6.8 
releases.   XFree86 does not seem to have yet pulled these new releases
back into their code base, though they are free to do so at any time, as
they have done with all the previous X.Org releases.

Many developers who used to work on XFree86, now work on X.Org as well, or
instead of, XFree86.   Most distros have or are working on moving from 
shipping code based on XFree86 to shipping code based on X.Org releases -
I believe Fedora & SuSE have already done so, with RedHat changing in their
upcoming release that will be based on the current Fedora release.

-- 
	-Alan Coopersmith-           alan.coopersmith at sun.com
	 Sun Microsystems, Inc. - X Window System Engineering