Re: Xpmac.deb

["Andrew B. Arthur" <arthur99@global2000.net>]

Chad Miller wrote:
> 
> Why isn't there an Xpmac .deb, even in contrib or non-free? 

It would probably go into main if there was an offical .deb of it since
the code is under the X11 license, since it is a diverative of the
sample X11R6.3 X server.

> It seems 'alien' might become a main+essential package, according to advice
> around here, wrt Xpmac.

In short, the story is that Xpmac is:
a) a major hack
b) a pain in the butt to compile
c) nobody wants to put effort into making it a package.
d) (and now) Ani Joshi is working on some good Mach64 drivers for
XFree86 4.0. They are (according to Ani Joshi) 10x faster at some
operations compared to Xpmac.

Here is the exact quote by Dan J.:

>> - and finally not contain Xpmac (Xpmac is bad but is useful)
> [It's] Obsolete, not to mention bloody painful to compile.

(from:
http://www.debian.org/Lists-Archives/debian-powerpc-0001/msg00021.html)

The fact is with XFree 4.0 just around the corner for Mach64 machines
and the PowerPC, creating and getting a Xpmac .deb is more pain then
it's worth -- especially when the server is quite easy to install by
hand.

-- 
Andrew B. Arthur             
arthur99@global2000.net