X.Org Server
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| X.Org Server | |
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| Maintainer: | X.Org Foundation |
| Stable release: | 7.2 (February 15, 2007) [+/-] |
| Preview release: | [1] () [+/-] |
| OS: | Multiple |
| Use: | Windowing system |
| License: | X11 License |
| Website: | X.Org |
The X.Org Foundation Open Source Public Implementation of X11 (the XOrg Server) is the official reference implementation of the X Window System. The current release is X11R7.2, released 15 February 2007. It is both open source and free software.
The project is run by the X.Org Foundation and is hosted by freedesktop.org.
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[edit] History
The modern X.Org Foundation came into being when the body that oversaw X standards and published the official reference implementation joined forces with former XFree86 developers.
X11R6.7.0, the first version of the X.Org Server, was forked from XFree86 4.4 RC2. The immediate reason for the fork was a disagreement with the new license for the final release version of XFree86 4.4, but several disagreements among the contributors surfaced prior to the split. When the fork was created changes were folded in from X11R6.6 creating a common codebase. Many (some claim the absolute majority) of the previous XFree86 developers have joined the X.Org Server project.
The X11R6.9.0/X11R7.0.0 release primarily added a modular build system based on the GNU Autotools. 6.9.0 used the old imake build system whereas 7.0.0 uses autotools, both on the same codebase. The modular path (using GNU Autotools) is however the future direction of the X.Org server, and also saw the X11 binaries moving out of their own /usr/X11R6 subdirectory tree and into the global /usr tree on POSIX systems.
[edit] Adoption
The X.Org Server is increasingly popular with the free software Unix-like operating systems, being adopted in most Linux distributions and BSD variants, with the exception of NetBSD. It is also included in Sun Microsystems' Solaris, although it is currently only supported on x86 systems; Sun's proprietary Xsun server is still also included, primarily for use with SPARC-based systems. It is also used in Cygwin/X, Cygwin's implementation of the X server for Microsoft Windows, and in Xming. Mac OS X still ships with an XFree86-based X window server.
[edit] Release history
See X Window System Release history.
