[LUAU] Intel Doubles Down on Linux

[Jim Thompson]

On Jul 27, 2005, at 12:47 AM, Jimen Ching wrote:

> On Tue, 26 Jul 2005, Jim Thompson wrote:
>
>> However, the protocol,  the thing that defines X11, unfortunately, is
>> broken for many interesting imaging applications.   This was really
>> in response to Wayne's cheerleading on X.org's recent moves.  If X is
>> to survive, I'm afraid we'll need X12 (a protocol rev) built around
>> new graphics primitives.
>>
>
> I think Wayne's point is that X.org is providing a 'good enough'  
> solution
> for the majority of its users.

X.org forked the server and managed to make the politics go away.   
Kicking Packard to the curb was a huge mistake on the part of  
whatever group (@ XFree86) did it.  Restricting the license (to be  
GPL-incompatible, and therefre "open", but not *free*) was fatal to  
XFree86.  (http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/18/131223)

But the real damage is that, at the end of the day, the entire  
XFree86 team was no match for the combination of Gettys and Packard.   
(Yes, other people helped, but these two are (still) the core of X11.)

> And it is improving at an acceptable rate.
> When I say majority, I'm talking about those who are just looking  
> for a
> good web browser, mail user agent and word processor.  Most of these
> people don't need a wiz-bang render engine.

True, but they don't need x11, either.

> For the things that X is good at, it's doing a fine job.  There are  
> always
> room for improvements, and when those improvements arrive, the  
> group that
> brought it about should be praised.  I think, ultimately, that's what
> Wayne was trying to do.  And isn't that the FOSS way?

Sure.   Heck, for the things I (used) to use X for, (emacs and  
xterms) it does fine, great even.  I'm one of those throwbacks who
will run windowmaker with no KDE or Gnome anywhere in sight.

But I've been using X (X6) since my days at UNLV and BYU, and later  
X10 and X11 at Convex, Sun, etc.  Various boxes that I own still run  
it, but none are my primary desktop these days.

Its ok... but you still have to fsck with it too much.

jim