evilmrt Posted April 9, 2004 Report Share Posted April 9, 2004 (edited) Ok, so x.org released X11 R6.7 the other day...which is basically XFree86 4.4 without all the nasty issues. It seems fully compatible with just about everything we use (if not everything in xfree). So why aren't we using it yet, and will MDK be dumping XFree86 in favor of it? I see no reason why, X.org are the maintainers of the X standard, lets just dump XFree (they're growing irrelevant now), be done with it, and wait for fd.o to be released. Maybe someone can explain it to me and everyone else. edit: on a side note, Dropline Gnome for Slackware has dumped XFree and gone with X.org, while official Slack has been the only major distro to support XFree86. :lol: Edited April 9, 2004 by evilmrt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aRTee Posted April 9, 2004 Report Share Posted April 9, 2004 Well, I think you have to be a bit more patient, for the moment the Mandrake developers have more on their hands, the mirrors are fsck'ed (main and contrib, update mirrors seem ok), and then some... :D Mandrake will no doubt move to X.org, the branched version of XFree 4.4rc2 that just came out. Don't confuse this server with the future that is being prepared by Keith Packard, also at x.org - his xserver is alpha quality/status right now, but it will sport many more goodies. Or maybe now both xservers at x.org can be merged...? Note: the recently released x.org xserver will likely soon be in cooker. Since RH/FC and others are going to use it, I see no reason why Mandrake wouldn't. Basically, it is the only option left for the moment. As to why we aren't using it yet, feel free to make Mandrake 10.0 rpms. And inform us asap about where we can download it. Thanks! :P Please note: no commercial distro has integrated this new xserver into their system yet, none offer it so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlc Posted April 9, 2004 Report Share Posted April 9, 2004 I found them! As far as Slackware and the BSD's using Xfree86-4.4, Here is some of Pat V comments about using it. "we will be the last people switching to something else". He has always stood behind quality and proven software. It works, why change for now. Now that doesn't mean that x.org sucks or is broken and that he wont include it at some point, but he has to test it for sometime before he will include it. You have to remember, Slackware is a one man show and it is in all respect the longest lasting Linux Distro out there. So for Slackware to make what might be a major change, "might" take awhile to happen. <---- I don't talk to him, live with him or even really know him so I don't know his schedule! :unsure: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonMage Posted April 9, 2004 Report Share Posted April 9, 2004 Slackware is pretty much the "purest" linux distro out there. No additional patches, etc. Heck.. 9.1 doesn't even have OO.o. So I guess the licensing problem that plague XFree 4.4 doesn't affect it. However, for more commercial distros like RH, SuSE, and Mandrake, it does pose a problem for them. Anyway, I have tried XFree 4.4 in my pclinuxos and all I say is.. big whoop (dripping with sarcasm). Other than additional drivers for some built in video cards, it doesn't offer anything new. I don't need the additional drivers anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aRTee Posted April 9, 2004 Report Share Posted April 9, 2004 I don't think so, I thought that technically, you cannot use XFree4.4 since that would not allow you legally to run KDE/QT and/or GNOME/GTK on it. I guess that for the additional drivers (intel?) it could be important to some, but for all others, 4.3 is fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlc Posted April 9, 2004 Report Share Posted April 9, 2004 I do know for newer nvidia cards like my FX 5700 Ultra the nv driver doesn't work on 4.3. It does work on 4.3.99??? and 4.4 though. I believe there are also ati cards that work better with 4.4 too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmpatrick Posted April 9, 2004 Report Share Posted April 9, 2004 I don't think so, I thought that technically, you cannot use XFree4.4 since that would not allow you legally to run KDE/QT and/or GNOME/GTK on it. It's not a use problem as I understand it; it's a distribution problem. You can't distribute XFree4.4 with the other stuff which is GPL software because the XFree license is not compatible with the GPL. You can run it all you want in the privacy of your own home. I'm not even sure of the illegality of distributing or whether it's just a policy of mandrake and others to not include non-GPL software in their download editions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aRTee Posted April 10, 2004 Report Share Posted April 10, 2004 You may well be correct on the private running being ok, for more info check the comments on slashdot at the time, you'll see that the big distros really had no choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted April 10, 2004 Report Share Posted April 10, 2004 (edited) I'm not even sure of the illegality of distributing or whether it's just a policy of mandrake and others to not include non-GPL software in their download editions. It's legal to distribute it, but the license is specifically restrictive in how it can be distributed. specifically, the following two statements were added to it's license. 3. The end-user documentation included with the redistribution, if any, must include the following acknowledgment: "This product includes software developed by The XFree86 Project, Inc (http://www.xfree86.org/) and its contributors", in the same place and form as other third-party acknowledgments. Alternately, this acknowledgment may appear in the software itself, in the same form and location as other such third-party acknowledgments. 4. Except as contained in this notice, the name of The XFree86 Project, Inc shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written authorization from The XFree86 Project, Inc. Basicially, it's saying you have to add a notice to all your docs coming from the XFree86 server (packaged with/concerning) must have the quoted notice. In addition, you can't use their name to try to make money unless they give you permission. So, some distro's can easily distribute XFree86 4.4 and also, quite easily, stick to the license. That is, distro's such as Arch (which I'm using) do not sell anything, really. Plus, the way they package it (the bare minimum - not really much on-system documentation when compared to Mandrake and the like) affords them no problem with point #3 - since they aren't adding any documentation, just leaving whatever comes with the packages in there. However, distributors such as Mandrake would have to edit tons of documents and even get permission from XFree86 to use their name in any way which could give them profit. Edited April 10, 2004 by tyme Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ac_dispatcher Posted April 10, 2004 Report Share Posted April 10, 2004 I just up'd to xorg-x11 last night on my Gentoo system. Works great for me. No problems. But from the Gentoo forum a lot of people are having some difficulty. I would calssify it as beta for now until they get some bugs worked out. Maybe show up in the next Mandy RC? 10.1? I been so used to tweaking my XF86Config its now weird to open /etc/X11/xorg.conf :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlc Posted April 10, 2004 Report Share Posted April 10, 2004 Works fine on my slackware box, so does fd.o Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iphitus Posted April 10, 2004 Report Share Posted April 10, 2004 Slackware is pretty much the "purest" linux distro out there. No additional patches, etc. Heck.. 9.1 doesn't even have OO.o. So I guess the licensing problem that plague XFree 4.4 doesn't affect it. However, for more commercial distros like RH, SuSE, and Mandrake, it does pose a problem for them. Anyway, I have tried XFree 4.4 in my pclinuxos and all I say is.. big whoop (dripping with sarcasm). Other than additional drivers for some built in video cards, it doesn't offer anything new. I don't need the additional drivers anyway. I have run 4.4 for a bit and it has got increased stability with my laptop's Intel graphics. The old one would occassionally crash if it felt like it. Now im using fd.o and its pretty cool too. iphitus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aRTee Posted April 12, 2004 Report Share Posted April 12, 2004 Iphitus, could you tell me if it is possible with your laptop to set colour depth to 24bit? I'm assuming that you have the recent intel integrated graphics.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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