X Window system on Handheld devices

[Corbin Simpson]

Feel free to ask the Android Linux teams why they didn't feel Xorg was a
good fit for their distributions. The answers might surprise you.

Sending from a mobile, pardon my terseness. ~ C.
On Jul 16, 2011 6:43 PM, "David Jackson" <djackson452 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Has the X.org organisation ever thought of promoting X.org for use by
> companies on thier handheld devices such as phones? X has really missed
the
> boat on this one. Years ago, in their infinite wisdom, X.org developers
> removed monochrome support and low colour support, things that would have
> been perfect for many handheld devices such as kindles.
>
> There is really no good reason why X cannot be used on handheld devices
and
> it woule encourage more use of a standardized platform like X rather than
> yet more proprietary systems.
>
> Another issue with possible use of X by other companies is the need to
> provide a device driver facility that supports backwards compatability,
that
> a device driver will continue to work on newer X servers, without being
> recompiled. That would go for all drivers for all parts of an OS. One
thing
> corporations do not want to do is have to distribute 40 different versions
> of a device driver and end up with a huge mess where device drivers
packaged
> with older devices no longer work.
>
> In relation to Linux and X, the only way to get these systems to be
useable
> for most people is to have hardware companies provide drivers for it,
since
> they can do all of the testing to make sure the driver works well with the
> hardware. This is the only way to get timely hardware support. Average
> people dont want to use Linux because of how shoddy the hardware support
is.
> If its anything slightly unusual, it wont work. Some corporations may want
> to distribute binary drivers, thats just a necessary evil to help get an
> open source OS more widely used, and as well, eventually open source
> replacements would still get developed anyway. In fact binary drivers from
> companies would make Linux more useable to more people, so we would see in
> increase in user use of Linux, and more opportunities for open source
> companies to be able to fund open source driver development.
>
> Ive been watching Linux for over 10 years and I have seen virtually no
> progress on the desktop. The big reason it still is not useable is the
> hardware problems. And the attitude of the Linux community as a whole is
the
> cause of that, the reason why so few people use Linux today, I have to
> recommend people who want to use Linux to not use it and stay with
Windows,
> because I know what a hassle it is, it really is still hard thing to use
> because it does not work right with so much hardware out there. And thats
> due to the attitude of Linux developers who have a knee jerk reaction
> against 3rd party drivers, when 3rd party drivers could make Linux useable
> to far more people and actually increase potential to fund Linux
> development. Both Linux kernel itself and X.org, if they were really
serious
> about making Linux practical to common users, would make it easier for
third
> party drivers to be developed, including better documentation of the APIs
so
> a company does not need to spend a year trying to understand it.
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