XWin
Encyclopedia
- This article discusses the Xwin discussion forums. For the X-Win32 X server, see X-Win32X-Win32In computing, X-Win32 is a proprietary implementation of the X Window System for Microsoft Windows, produced by StarNet Communications. It is based on X11R7.4...
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Keith Packard
Keith Packard
Keith Packard is a software developer, best known for his work on the X Window System.Packard is responsible for many X extensions and technical papers on X...
started the XWin project
Project
A project in business and science is typically defined as a collaborative enterprise, frequently involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim. Projects can be further defined as temporary rather than permanent social systems that are constituted by teams...
in 2003 in order to provide forums for collaborative and co-operative discussion between X
X Window System
The X window system is a computer software system and network protocol that provides a basis for graphical user interfaces and rich input device capability for networked computers...
developers, X end-users, and potential developers. Due to misleading media reports from news sites such as Slashdot
Slashdot
Slashdot is a technology-related news website owned by Geeknet, Inc. The site, which bills itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters", features user-submitted and ‑evaluated current affairs news stories about science- and technology-related topics. Each story has a comments section...
and others, the public gained the incorrect impression that the project had fork
Fork (software development)
In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a legal copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct piece of software...
ed the XFree86 source code. The Xwin project however never did perform a fork of XFree86, and never intended to do so. The Xwin project clearly stated this on the project homepage:
Quote:
Web site title header: "Xwin.org - Xwin is just a website"
- "xwin.org is a forum for community participation in X, not a development project. The X development community needs to work together to form a government. The hope is that community governance will encourage rapid advances in the X window system."
Subsequently the XWin forum closed, and it now directs users to freedesktop.org
Freedesktop.org
freedesktop.org is a project to work on interoperability and shared base technology for free software desktop environments for the X Window System on Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. It was founded by Havoc Pennington from Red Hat in March 2000.The organisation focuses on the user....
. Keith Packard began a new development branch of the X Window System
X Window System
The X window system is a computer software system and network protocol that provides a basis for graphical user interfaces and rich input device capability for networked computers...
under the name Xserver hosted at freedesktop.org. Xserver uses the KDrive
KDrive
KDrive is a small X Window System server implementation created by Keith Packard. Unlike the X.Org Server, KDrive was not based on XFree86 code...
API
Application programming interface
An application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...
driver
Device driver
In computing, a device driver or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a hardware device....
model. This next generation of X server
X Window System
The X window system is a computer software system and network protocol that provides a basis for graphical user interfaces and rich input device capability for networked computers...
follows a different direction to that of XFree86
XFree86
XFree86 is an implementation of the X Window System. It was originally written for Unix-like operating systems on IBM PC compatibles and is now available for many other operating systems and platforms. It is free and open source software under the XFree86 License version 1.1. It is developed by the...
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