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Re: xorg vs. xlibs/xserver/xapps?



Around 17 o'clock on Mar 27, Nathanael Nerode wrote:

> What are the differences between XOrg's monolithic tree and
> freedesktop.org's modular trees?  Are they basically the same code apart
> from the (large) configuration differences, or is one behind/ahead of the
> other regarding drivers, core functionality, etc.?

There aren't any significant technical differences, and I'll be merging
those across once the X.Org release is ready.  The biggest differences
right now are trademark related. David Dawes has indicated that he will
agressively assert rights to the XFree86 trademark, and has even taken
steps to register it with the US PTO.  

On advice of council, those doing the X.Org release have undertaken to try
and make it such that the X.Org release does not infringe on the XFree86
trademark.  For the libraries, these differences are very minor, usually 
affecting only documentation.

The goal is to migrate development effort from the monolithic tree to the
modular tree while preserving full compatibility.

> For instance, I know that XOrg has basically all the XFree86 4.4
> functionality in it (they're advertising it).  I have no idea whether the
> modular freedesktop.org trees have the same collection of code merged in
> (or whether they intend to).  (I hope so.)  Any idea?

If you look at the changes from XFree86 4.3 (current unstable) to the 
X.Org release, you'll see very few changes -- XFree86 has never done much 
work in the libraries and this release is no different.  The modular tree 
was cut over a few months earlier than X.Org, and there are probably a few 
bugfixes related to the Sun IPv6 support (which we'll have to look at 
closely before enabling for debian).

-keith


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